Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov threatened retaliation against Western nations and portrayed Russia as defending global sovereignty at the U.N. General Assembly.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov used his address to the United Nations General Assembly (UGNA) on Saturday to deliver one of Moscow’s starkest warnings yet to the West, accusing NATO and the European Union of waging a «real war» against Russia.
Lavrov opened with sweeping historical references to World War II, positioning Russia as the heir to the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazism and defending global sovereignty. He accused the U.S. of dismantling those postwar principles through interventions in Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya, and warned that the same was happening today in the Middle East.
While condemning Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack, Lavrov said Israel’s campaign in Gaza amounted to «collective punishment» of civilians, linking the conflict to what he portrayed as decades of unchecked Western use of force.
Lavrov accused NATO of ignoring decades of security commitments. He insisted Russia has «never had and does not have» plans to attack NATO countries, calling Western warnings of a Russian offensive «provocations.»
He singled out claims by European leaders as «false portrayals» of Moscow’s intentions, echoing President Vladimir Putin’s denials that Russia plans to strike NATO or EU territory.
