ISTANBUL 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Sunday praised US President Donald Trump for his “common sense” with regard to ending the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, which completed its third year late last month.

In an interview with the military newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda, a transcript of which was published by the Russian Foreign Ministry, Lavrov argued that the US still seeks to be the “first country in the world,” and that Washington tried to do this by “subordinating everything and everyone to themselves” under former presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama.

“Donald Trump is a pragmatist. His slogan is common sense. It means a transition to a different way of doing things,” Lavrov said.

“But the goal is still MAGA (Make America Great Again). Now he has a new cap: ‘Everything that Donald Trump promised, he did.’ This gives a lively, human character to politics. That's why it is interesting (to work) with him,” the top Russian diplomat further said.

On the high-level meeting between American and Russian officials in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Feb. 18, Lavrov said that both sides acknowledged that they will never think alike on every issue of world politics.

Lavrov further said that they, however, agreed on using situations where their interests coincide to “translate it into some practical actions and obtain mutually beneficial results.”

"Where interests do not coincide, it is the duty of responsible powers to prevent this mismatch from degenerating into confrontation. This is absolutely our position," Lavrov said, arguing that this is also the format in which relations between the US and China are built.

Lavrov also claimed that "all the tragedies of the world" originated in Europe, thanks to European policy over the last 500 years.

"If we look at history in retrospect, the Americans did not play any instigating or even 'incendiary' role," he said.

The Russian foreign minister criticized the idea of deploying European peacekeepers to the war-torn country, adding that this will not eliminate the "root causes" of the conflict in Ukraine.

"This plan to introduce 'peacekeepers' into Ukraine is continuing to incite Kyiv for a war against us," he noted.