Lavrov: “We have no intention of fighting Europe — that is nonsense and rubbish”

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that Moscow has no plans for war with Europe, citing repeated remarks by President Vladimir Putin.

He made the statement in an interview with TASS.

“We have set out our position many times, so I have nothing to add. President Putin has stated it personally. He said it before, and just recently — in St. Petersburg, I believe — he confirmed the position that we have no intention of fighting Europe. That is nonsense and rubbish,” the minister said.

At the same time, Lavrov stated that Europeans themselves are preparing for war with Russia and confirm on a daily basis that they must be ready for it by 2030 at the latest.

The foreign minister also recalled Putin’s words regarding a possible European attack on Russia: “we will not be the ones to hold back.”

“And on another occasion he said that it would be a completely different war, and that it would be short,” Lavrov added.

On September 19, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe Giuseppe Cavo Dragone stated that the alliance has prepared four thousand pages of plans for various crisis scenarios on the eastern flank. According to him, the plans cover actions ranging from limited intervention on NATO member territory all the way to the invocation of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.

Previously, Putin equated the deployment of European troops to Ukraine with a declaration of war.