Russian FM Lavrov claims EU, NATO creating 'coalition' to fight war with Russia

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday alleged that the West's defense alliance North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU) are building a coalition to wage a war with Russia. Speaking at a news conference in Baku, Azerbaijan after his meeting with Jeyhun Bayramov, Azerbaijan's minister of foreign affairs, Lavrov made toughened remarks against the militarization of Europe's eastern flank, which he reiterated Russia perceives as a "national security threat." He derided the rhetoric of the union that he said has been increasingly aggressive and “Russophobic." 

"The European Union, together with NATO, is gathering a sort of modern coalition to fight, essentially, a war with the Russian Federation,” Lavrov said at a joint press conference with his Azeri counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov in Baku.

He maintained, that Russia will “monitor this very closely.”

Lavrov compares NATO's militarization to Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's strategy during WWII

Lavrov made a comparison of NATO's expansion and its military actions, and EU's strategy with one used by the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler during WWII when Germany attacked the then Soviet Union. "Hitler rallied a significant part, if not most, of the European nations under his banner for a war against the Soviet Union," Russia's foreign minister said at the conference in Baku. 

Lavrov had earlier compared Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, to the Nazi dictator Hitler saying that the latter was "also a Jew." The statement was condemned by Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid as "a terrible historical mistake", and Tel Aviv instantly demanded an apology from Lavrov. 

"Frank anti-Semitic statements by Lavrov, accusations of Jews in WWII and the Holocaust are further evidence that Russia is the legal successor of the Nazi ideology. Trying to rewrite history, Moscow is simply looking for arguments to justify the massacres of Ukrainians," Mikhail Podolyak, a Ukrainian adviser to the presidential office, wrote on Twitter.

Lavrov on Saturday also commented on the EU's decision of granting the candidacy status to war-inflicted Ukraine and its neighbour Moldova. He said that the EU, in fact, wasn't a military-political bloc, therefore, unlike NATO, its ties with other countries aren't a threat or risk to Russia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, meanwhile, labelled Ukraine and Moldova's EU membership as the "internal European affair." “These are, of course, internal European affairs,” Peskov told reporters on a regular conference call. “It is crucial for us that all these processes do not bring more problems to us and to the relations of the above-mentioned countries with us. And that it doesn’t lead to a further deterioration of our relations with the EU," he continued. Russia's President Vladimir Putin earlier last week told reporters in Moscow that he “has nothing against” Ukraine entering the EU as it is the “sovereign decision of any country” to join an economic bloc and Russia does not see it as threat.