Lavrov warns of 'very short' war if Europe attacks Russia

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned on Wednesday that any European military aggression against Russia would provoke a "completely different" and "very short" war, reiterating that Moscow has no plans to attack Western countries despite ongoing tensions over NATO expansion.

Warning at youth festival

Speaking at the International Youth Festival in Yekaterinburg, Lavrov emphasized that confrontation is not Moscow's preferred approach, a stance he said President Vladimir Putin has personally articulated on numerous occasions. "Russia has repeatedly said that we are not going to attack Western countries and have no interest in doing so. But if Europe, which speaks regularly about preparing for war against Russia, attacks the Russian Federation, then this will be a completely different war, and it will be very short," he said, referring to repeated European statements about war preparation.

NATO expansion cited

Lavrov cited what he described as NATO's "forceful" expansion toward Russia's borders. "The West made a choice long ago in favor of containing Russia," he said, criticizing European leaders in Brussels for mainstreaming rhetoric about preparing for war with Moscow.

The minister noted that confrontation was not Russia's method, a position that had been repeatedly stated by the Russian leadership. He singled out current EU political discourse for increasingly treating war with Russia as a major policy theme.