Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov escalated Moscow's rhetoric against the West on Thursday, accusing NATO and the European Union of effectively declaring war on Russia by supporting Ukraine's defense against the invasion.
"NATO and the EU, using Ukraine as their proxy, have declared war on Russia and are directly participating in it," a social media post declared from Lavrov's remarks.
Speaking in remarks shared on a public Telegram channel and reported by multiple state-aligned outlets, Lavrov said Western governments had "abandoned diplomacy" and were now "waging a hybrid war" aimed at weakening and dividing Russia.
The remarks came after Lavrov's closed-door meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, Russian state-run RIA news agency reported Wednesday.
They also appeared online just before President Donald Trump was meeting with pro-Vladimir Putin leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey in the Oval Office on Thursday.
"This is a tough man," Trump told reporters. "This is a guy who's highly opinionated. Usually I don't like opinionated people, but I always like this one.
"But he's a tough one and he does an amazing job in his country."
Trump was talking F-35 jet deals with Turkey as the backdrop of burgeoning "coalition of the willing" talk about potential security guarantees in Ukraine against Russia's invasion.
"We've had tremendous relationships, both having to do with war and having to do with trade, and I guess today we're talking about both," Trump added of Erdogan, with whom he had remained friendly before and after cold relations under former President Joe Biden.
"I'd like to have him stop buying any oil from Russia while Russia continues his rampage against Ukraine. And they've been fighting. They've lost millions of lives already. And for what? You know for what? It's disgraceful. And I said yesterday, let it keep going because their economy is absolutely terrible right now.
"I think it's a shame that they're doing that, killing a lot of people unnecessarily: 7,818 people were killed last week, mostly military people, their people and Ukrainians, more Russians actually, than Ukraine, a little bit more.
"But it's such a waste of human life. And so we ought to stop it. Putin ought to stop."
Trump reiterated Thursday he's "very disappointed in Putin."
"With all of the heavy bombardment over the last two weeks, they have gained almost no land," Trump told reporters. "I'm not going to ever call anybody a paper tiger but Russia has spent millions and millions of dollars in bombs, missiles, ammunition and lives. Their lives. And they've gained virtually no land. I think it's time to stop, I really do."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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