Lavrov accused Europe of trying to impose a ceasefire that contradicts the agreements between Putin and Trump

A ceasefire along the front line without addressing the “root causes of the conflict” would contradict the agreements reached between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Anchorage, Alaska.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference following talks with his Ethiopian counterpart.

According to Lavrov, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is being urged toward such a peace scenario by his “European patrons and handlers.” However, Lavrov emphasized that this approach is the exact opposite of what Trump and Putin agreed upon in Alaska, where the two leaders decided to focus on the underlying causes of the conflict.

“An immediate ceasefire, which they’ve suddenly started talking about again, instead of addressing the substance of the problem, would mean only one thing: a large part of Ukraine would remain under Nazi control. It would be the only place on Earth where an entire language is legally banned. If this is what those who are now trying to persuade our American colleagues to change their position and simply ‘stop where things are’ want — we know who they are — the European patrons and masters of Zelensky — then such an approach is completely at odds with what Putin and Trump agreed on in Anchorage,” Lavrov said.

As a reminder, Trump has denied claims that he demanded Zelensky concede the Donetsk region to end the war, but stressed that the conflict must be stopped along the current front line.

Meanwhile, the U.K. government today published a joint statement by Zelensky and several European leaders calling for an immediate halt to the war along the line of contact.