Russia’s FM Lavrov says ‘let NATO fight’ if it opposes freezing conflict in Ukraine

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday that if NATO opposed freezing the conflict in Ukraine, then the military alliance should send its own troops to fight in the war.

Lavrov’s statement came in response to comments made by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg who said on Monday: “We all want this war to end. But a just peace cannot be freezing the conflict and accepting a deal dictated by Russia.”

Stoltenberg also emphasized that NATO was not party to the conflict, but that the alliance stood with Ukraine in its right to self-defense, adding that member countries needed to bolster their own defenses: “After Russia’s full-fledged invasion of Ukraine, everyone understands much better why we need strong defenses. It is not to provoke a conflict, but to preserve peace and protect our prosperity.”

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Russia’s top diplomat retorted by saying: “If NATO once again uses Stoltenberg to declare that it is against freezing, as they say, the conflict in Ukraine, then that means they want to fight. So let them fight,” state news agency TASS reported.

Lavrov stressed that Russia was prepared and ready for such a turn of events: “We have long understood NATO’s goals regarding the situation in Ukraine.” He added: “These objectives were worked out a long time ago, after the state coup [in Ukraine]. NATO is trying to implement them now.”

Lavrov claimed that Western politicians and analysts were “gradually sobering up and realizing the true reasons and nature behind what is going on in the world.”

He added: “If they maintain at the same time that they are not waging a war against Russia, when in fact that is exactly what they are doing, admitting that without pumping the Ukrainian regime with weapons, without providing Kyiv with intelligence data from satellites, the Ukrainian situation would have been over a long time ago, this is actually recognition of their direct involvement in the hybrid and even hot war declared against Russia.”

Since the outbreak of the war in February 2022, Moscow has argued that Western arms supplies to Ukraine effectively implicated NATO with a direct role in the conflict, repeatedly warning of escalation.

Earlier this year, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu accused the West of prolonging the conflict by supplying Kyiv with heavy offensive weapons. “Such moves are actually drawing NATO countries into the conflict and can eventually lead to an unpredictable escalation.”

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