Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday accused the European Union of having transformed itself into an “aggressive and bellicose” actor in the wake of NATO with the conflict in Ukraine.

"The EU has evolved from a constructive economic platform, as it was created, to an aggressive and belligerent actor which already shows its ambitions far beyond the European continent," said Sergey Lavrov during a press conference from Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

As such, he judged that "Kyiv's desire to become a member of the European Union is not insignificant".

More broadly, he accused the Europeans of rushing "exactly on the path that NATO has already charted, thus confirming the trend towards fusion with the North Atlantic Alliance and will, in fact, serve as an 'appendage' to NATO, added Mr. Lavrov in the park of an official residence, interrupted by the cries of peacocks.

He denounced in passing the remarks of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who went to India at the end of April for a visit intended to strengthen strategic ties with this country which displays its neutrality in the face of the conflict.

"The outcome of the war (in Ukraine) will not only determine the future of Europe, but will profoundly affect the Indo-Pacific region as well," she said.

Moscow considers the Atlantic Alliance, its old enemy of the Cold War, as an existential threat and has justified its offensive in Ukraine in particular by the Atlanticist ambitions of Kyiv and the Western political and military support for this neighbor of Russia.

Russia is also stepping up its knife strikes against the European Union, which has imposed an unprecedented round of sanctions on Moscow and is showing its support for Ukraine.