Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov compared the recent actions of the United States to those of Adolf Hitler and Napoleon Bonaparte on Wednesday, saying Washington had also subjugated Europe in order to wage war against Moscow.

He said that the Nazi leader and French emperor had once tried to use the same tactic against Russia.

"The United States, through Ukraine by proxy, is waging a war against our country with the same task: the final solution of the Russian question," Lavrov told reporters at his annual news conference. (Reporting by Reuters Editing by Andrew Osborn)