Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attacked the US and its Western allies as “warmongers” in a fiery tirade at the UN Saturday, where he sought to drive a wedge between the US and Europe while defending Russia’s bloody war in Ukraine.
He called out the US for military actions in Venezuela and Iran, while quoting Russian President Vladimir Putin as he railed against Western “hegemony.”
“The West aspires to inflict strategic defeat on Russia, but these aspirations will result in the warmongers being led into a strategic dead end,” Lavrov told the General Assembly.
“At the start of this year, in contravention of all norms, including moral norms, the US invaded Venezuela, resulting in the abduction of President Maduro and his spouse — held in an American prison without trial. And this despite the fact that international law clearly states that the highest-ranking public officials of any state should enjoy immunities,” he said.
“It is unacceptable the fact that force was used to kill the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and members of his family,” said Lavrov, who did not address high-level Russian threats against the life of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
He said US and Israeli attacks on Iran “also seek to target the civilian infrastructure in Iran and civilian nuclear infrastructure under [international] safeguards.”
Lavrov then turned his attention to Ukraine, where he accused the US and its allies of prolonging the war by arming Kyiv.
“The West is pumping the Ukrainian regime full of weapons, helping Kyiv to target drones and missiles to target them at civilians and civilian infrastructure,” he said, skirting over repeated Russian attacks on Ukrainian apartments, warehouses, and energy infrastructure.
Ukraine, which is fighting off the invasion, launched its own series of drone attacks on Russian refineries.
Lavrov also broadened his attack beyond the Ukraine war, taking aim at the US embargo and fuel blockade against Cuba — calling it an “island of freedom” and demanding the lifting of all trade restrictions.
He also tore into US European allies, saying the “lessons of Nuremberg [were] not learned by everybody” and accusing European Union leaders of being “contaminated with the virus of racial superiority” — rhetoric consistent with Moscow’s longstanding efforts to drive wedges between the US and its NATO allies.
“Europe is doing everything it can to thwart peace talks in which the Trump administration is interested,” he said.
Lavrov’s address came two days after President Trump invited Putin to the G20 summit in Miami this December — a move that has sparked rare bipartisan backlash.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the invite Wednesday, calling it “an opportunity for him to engage not just with the president but with other world leaders.”
If Putin accepts, it would be his first major international summit since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Seven Republican senators — including Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn and Thom Tillis — joined Democrats in a letter urging Trump to rescind the invitation, warning it would hand Putin “the stature and legitimacy” of a world leader.
But Lavrov wasn’t finished airing grievances at the podium. The Kremlin mouthpiece reached far back in time to poke at colonial powers and stoke resentments inside a body where major powers including the US, Russia, and China hold sway.
“The Western minority, which dominated for 500 years, thanks to others’ resources, continues to try to maintain its privileges and to impose its own rules on everyone else,” he ranted.
“The West continues to use brute force to act unpredictably, to engage in all sorts of ventures, putting at risk the life and prosperity of millions, if not billions of people on our planet, as President Putin said, the dictatorship of one hegemon is spiraling out of control. It’s dangerous for everyone else.”
