Lavrov: 'scared' Europe is derailing Trump's Ukraine diplomacy

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has framed President Donald Trump's revived diplomacy as aligned with Moscow — no NATO for Ukraine, recognition of 'realities on the ground,' and a postwar Ukraine as a buffer zone. He accused European leaders, 'scared to death' by Washington's compromise proposals, of working to derail them. The remarks underline how far the revived US–Russia channel has left Europe and Kyiv outside the room.

Bottom line — Moscow's 'buffer zone' plan and NATO veto define the US–Russia agenda; EU and Kyiv are not at the table.

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• Lavrov said Europeans were 'scared to death' when Trump returned to proposals he had discussed with Putin, and immediately rushed to coax him into abandoning them, per RT.
• He claimed Macron boasted at a June NATO summit that the earlier 'Anchorage initiative' had been buried and Washington was once again aligned with Europe, according to RT.
• Washington's position, as Lavrov describes it, rules out Ukraine's NATO membership — Trump called the issue 'settled' — and accepts Moscow's 'realities on the ground', meaning the people living in occupied areas, according to Anadolu Ajansı.
• Lavrov called for Ukraine itself to become Russia's postwar 'buffer zone' and said Moscow will not accept the current government in Kyiv remaining in power, per KyivPost.
• A Ukrainian lawmaker, quoted by Lavrov, has already said the US envoys' proposals were 'far worse than what Ukraine had previously rejected'; Washington has not disclosed the terms, according to Anadolu.
• US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner spent over three hours with Putin in Moscow on 5 September, then went to Kyiv; the White House called the talks 'substantive' but KyivPost reports no significant progress.
• Lavrov insisted Moscow is open to negotiations but will keep fighting while they run, citing the 2022 Istanbul episode — he says Macron asked Putin for a goodwill gesture before Ukraine walked away, TASS reports.
• He warned that any Western troops deployed in Ukraine under NATO-style guarantees would be 'legitimate targets', ruling out any arrangement that 'replicates' membership, according to TASS.
• Lavrov advised Europe to remember Putin's warning that if Europe attacks Russia, the war would be 'completely different and very short', TASS reports.

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