Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has rejected a reported peace deal involving Ukraine and NATO, claiming that the proposals were made by President-elect Trump’s advisors.
In an interview with TASS, a state-run Russian news agency, Lavrov said that the U.S. plans to suspend hostilities along the line of contact and transfer responsibility for confrontation with Russia to the Europeans. He also claimed that NATO has been expanding its reach for many years, which has become one of the primary causes of the Ukraine crisis.
Lavrov specifically mentioned that NATO military and mercenaries openly participate in the planning of combat operations and fighting on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and that NATO is complicit in the invasion of the Kursk Region and long-range missile strikes inside Russia.
The Russian foreign minister also referenced President Vladimir Putin’s recent public statements, in which Putin expressed willingness to compromise with Trump, but insisted that Russia is in a stronger position than it was in 2022.
Lavrov’s comments come after President-elect Trump expressed a desire to end the Russo-Ukrainian war in his TIME Person of the Year interview, and claimed that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if he were president in 2022.
It’s worth noting that the reported peace deal has not been announced by any American officials, and it’s unclear whether Trump’s team has made any proposals regarding NATO and Ukraine.