On Thursday, attempting to weaken U.S. confidence, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov blamed the Trump administration for escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Lavrov claimed that the potential of sanctions to pressure North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been “virtually depleted.” The U.S. push to tighten international sanctions on North Korea, he added, “deliberately aim to provoke Pyongyang into taking new drastic steps … One gets the impression that everything was deliberately done to make Kim Jong Un lose his nerve and take another reckless action. This is regrettable.”