Voice of America News reports: “As European Union leaders prepare for emergency talks to ramp up military spending after the Trump administration suspended aid to Ukraine, several Russia experts say Moscow is trying to capitalize on fragmenting Western cohesion.

Following last week’s televised Oval Office clash between U.S. and Ukrainian leaders, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov on Monday accused Europe of seeking to prolong the war, adding that changes in U.S. ‘foreign policy configurations’ largely coincide with Moscow’s vision.

The comments came before an EU financial summit planned for Thursday that aims to grapple with stabilizing continental security and helping Ukraine after decades of dependence on the U.S. defense umbrella.

In a recent interview with the military newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called President Donald Trump a ‘pragmatist’ whose motto is ‘common sense.’ He also said, ‘All tragedies in the world’ over the past 500 years ‘originated in Europe or occurred owing to European policies,’ while ‘the Americans played no seditious, let alone ‘inflammatory,’ role.’…”