Russian FM Lavrov slams western 'ultimatums', says Trump under EU, NATO pressure on Ukraine

Tianjin [China], July 15 : US President Donald Trump is under "improper pressure" from the European Union and NATO leaders to take a tougher stance on the Ukraine conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday, according to Russian state media outlet RT.

Lavrov's remarks came during a press conference following a ministerial meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Tianjin, China. The Russian minister responded to Trump's recent announcement on future deliveries of advanced weapons systems to Ukraine, which the US president said would be funded by European NATO members. Trump also issued an ultimatum threatening Russia and its trading partners with new economic sanctions unless the conflict is resolved within 50 days.

"Clearly, [Trump] is under enormous - improper, I would say - pressure by the European Union and current NATO leaders," Lavrov said, as quoted by RT. He claimed the "regime" of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky continues to seek arms from the West "at the mounting expense of Western taxpayers."

Lavrov also criticised the new wave of sanctions proposed by Trump, stating that they would likely backfire on the West. "Trump clearly explained that Europe will be paying for all of that," Lavrov said. "European economists and political experts who are objective acknowledge that this sanctions war is damaging the nations who initiated it. We are already dealing with an unprecedented number of sanctions, and I am certain we can handle more," he added, according to RT.

The Russian foreign minister emphasised Moscow's long-standing position that NATO instigated the Ukraine crisis by threatening Russia's national security. "The West has pursued a containment strategy against Russia for decades and ignored repeated warnings from Moscow," Lavrov said, as reported by RT.

He also noted that Russia has faced numerous ultimatums in the past, involving deadlines and demands that infringe on what it considers its core strategic interests in Ukraine. Lavrov downplayed the effectiveness of Western pressure, insisting that Moscow remains firm in its stance.

His remarks came as US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose 100 per cent "secondary tariffs" on Russia if a deal on Ukraine is not reached within 50 days.

During his meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the White House on Monday (local time), Trump expressed disappointment with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin and threatened to impose severe tariffs if there is no deal within 50 days.

He said, "We are very unhappy, I am with Russia. But, we will discuss that maybe a different day. But, we're very, very unhappy with them, and we're going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don't have a deal in 50 days. Tariffs at about 100 per cent. You'd call them secondary tariffs. You know what that means. But today, we're going to talk about something else. And as you know, we've spent USD 350 billion, approximately, on this war with Russia and Ukraine and would like to see it end. It wasn't my war. It was Biden's war. It's not my war."

"I'm trying to get you out of it. And we want to see it end and I'm disappointed in President Putin because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago, but it doesn't seem to get there. So, based on that, we're going to be doing secondary tariffs if we don't have a deal in 50 days. It's very simple and they'll be at 100 per cent and that's the way it is. It can be more simple. It's just the way it is. I hope we don't have to do it. But regardless, we are going to be, we make the greatest military equipment in the world, whether it's missiles," he added.

Trump also unveiled a deal under which NATO will buy arms from the US and then distribute them to Ukraine amid the ongoing war with Russia.

He said, "The only one we haven't been able to get to yet is Russia, and I'm not happy. And I will tell you that Ukraine wants to do something again. It's a war that should have never started. If I were president, it never would have happened. I used to speak to President Putin about it a lot. It was the apple of his eye. But once I saw what was going on, I said, they're going to they're going to have a war here. I was outside. Lecture was rigged and I was outside looking in and I said, you know, that thing's going to be a war. Couldn't believe it because what Biden said was the exact opposite of what should have been said and it started and it's a real mess. We're losing I guess they're losing five or six thousand people a day. It's actually now more."

"I used to was saying 5,000 a day. It's actually more now, mostly soldiers but a lot of people in cities and towns that are getting blown up to it's a horrible war and it should be stopped. And so if it's not done, if we don't have an agreement in 50 days, that's what we're doing secondary tariffs and they're biting and I hope we don't get to the point where we do, but I I've been hearing so much talk. It's all talk. It's all talk and then missiles go into Kyiv and kill 60 people. It's got to stop. But, the purpose of this is to say that this is a very big deal we've made. This is billions of dollars worth of military equipment is going to be purchased from the United States going to NATO etc. And that's going to be quickly distributed to the battlefield, Ukraine will take it up," he added.

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