Russia’s top diplomat has accused NATO and the European Union of declaring war on Russia and using Ukraine to wage it, prompting pushback from Western diplomats and NATO leaders, who called the claim a distortion of reality and say it is Moscow that has “brought war back to Europe.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the remarks to fellow diplomats at a G20 meeting of foreign ministers at the United Nations in New York on Sept. 25. Lavrov accused Western powers of trampling on the U.N. Charter out of “neocolonial ambitions,” leading to increased global instability and regional conflicts.