Mariani said that the large-scale expansion of the European Union to the east was ill-conceived and hasty, since as a result of this the EU became dependent on the new members of the association.
“Instead of following the opinion of the countries of, say, the South European Latin world in relation to Russia, which are historically not hostile to Russia and striving for the common good, Brussels became dependent on the states of Eastern Europe,” the EP deputy said.
According to him, the authorities of the EU countries began to pursue their policy in the eastern direction in accordance with the positions of the new EU members, who historically "as if sentenced themselves to enmity with Russia."
He called this one of the reasons that led to the special operation in Ukraine.
In addition, Mariani said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tricked European countries into supplying weapons to Kyiv and thus deliberately created a new hotbed of tension in Europe.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the West had long ignored calls not to make Ukraine anti-Russia.
Prior to this, Lavrov stated that the West declared total war on the entire Russian world, and no one hides this fact, and the situation itself “is already reaching the point of absurdity”, in particular, because of the culture of canceling Russia and everything connected with it.