Russia praises POTUS for saying NATO was a major cause of the war in Ukraine

MOSCOW (Reuters) -     Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov lauded U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday for saying that previous U.S. support of Ukraine's bid to join the NATO military alliance was a major cause of the war in Ukraine.

Trump has said that he saw no way that Russia could have allowed Ukraine to join NATO, and blamed former Democratic President Joe Biden for allegedly changing the U.S. position on NATO membership for Ukraine.

"He is the first, and so far, in my opinion, the only Western leader who has publicly and loudly said that one of the root causes of the Ukrainian situation was the impudent line of the previous administration to draw Ukraine into NATO," Lavrov told lawmakers.

"No Western leaders had ever said that, but he had said it several times. This is already a signal that he understands our position when President (Vladimir) Putin," Lavrov said.

Amid talks with the United States in Riyadh on Tuesday, Russia demanded NATO scrap its 2008 promise to one day give Ukraine membership of the U.S.-led alliance and dismissed the idea that NATO member forces could be keepers of the peace under some sort of ceasefire deal.

 (Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)