Sergei Ryabkov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister responsible for U.S. relations, nonproliferation and arms control, told Russian state news agency TASS that the Ukraine war won’t end until NATO withdraws troops from the Baltics.
According to Newsweek, Ryabkov’s comments mark a shift in the Kremlin’s position, as he suggested that the conflict’s roots lie not only in Ukraine itself but in NATO’s eastward expansion. NATO maintains a strong military presence in the Baltic States, with multinational battle groups and brigades stationed in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
The Russian deputy foreign minister argued in the TASS interview that resolving the conflict in Ukraine requires addressing “the root causes.”
“The American side requires practical steps aimed at eliminating the root causes of the fundamental contradictions between us in the area of security … Among these causes, NATO expansion is in the foreground. Without resolving this fundamental and most acute problem for us, it is simply impossible to resolve the current conflict in the Euro-Atlantic region,” he said, adding:
Given the essence and genesis of the Ukraine crisis triggered by previous US administrations and by the West in general, the given conflict serves to test Washington’s willingness to restore relations.
