Russia seeks clarity on Trump’s stance after G7 Ukraine remarks
Lavrov said Moscow is still trying to decode whether Trump’s G7 comments on Ukraine marked a real shift or a brief hardening under allied pressure.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that Moscow wanted to understand what happened at the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, where Donald Trump’s language on Ukraine was notably tougher than in earlier months. Russia is still trying to determine whether Trump’s G7 remarks on Ukraine represented a real policy change or a temporary hardening shaped by pressure from allies and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The summit in the French Alpine town from June 15 to 17 produced agreement to increase delivery of air-defense capabilities, additional systems and interceptors, long-range capabilities, and support for Ukraine’s energy resilience, while reaffirming support for Kyiv’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Emmanuel Macron said Trump had acknowledged that Russia did not want peace, a description that signaled a marked change in tone from the U.S. president.
Trump’s own remarks fed the sense that the meeting had moved him closer to the G7 position. After meeting Zelenskyy, he urged Russia to make peace. He also told the summit that he had held very good conversations with both Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy, even as he appeared to tighten his language toward Moscow. At one point he said, “I’m the boss.”
Ukrainian and European leaders spent the summit pressing Trump to see Russia, not Kyiv, as the main obstacle to a settlement. Zelenskyy showed Trump photographs of Kyiv’s Dormition Cathedral after a Russian strike. The encounter between Zelenskyy and Trump was their first face-to-face meeting in nearly four months.
Lavrov said Russia had not been clearly told what the Americans took away from Evian or what course Washington would follow next. He also referred to the Anchorage understandings, the framework Russian officials say emerged from Trump’s earlier meeting with Putin, and said Moscow believed those understandings had been buried at the G7.
The summit included fresh sanctions pressure on Russian oil shipments. That harder line came as Russia launched major drone-and-missile attacks on Ukraine around the opening of the talks, killing civilians and striking Kyiv landmarks, including the Dormition Cathedral. Evian had also hosted the 2003 G8 meeting.
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