"We expect negotiations to continue": Lavrov voiced Russia's conditions for a peaceful settlement
Kyiv • UNN
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that a peaceful settlement of the "crisis" in Ukraine remains Russia's priority. He recalled the 2022 negotiations and named conditions for a lasting peace.
The settlement of the "crisis" in Ukraine by peaceful means remains a priority for the Russian Federation. This was stated in an interview with the Indonesian publication Kompas by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, reports UNN.
Details
He recalled that after the start of the "special military operation to save people in Donbas," Kyiv requested negotiations, "and we immediately agreed."
They took place in February-April 2022, first in Belarus, then in Turkey. Agreements on a peaceful resolution of the conflict were even initialed, but the Kyiv regime, on the advice of its Western curators, refused to sign a peace treaty, choosing to continue the war.
According to him, in the spring, at the initiative of Russian dictator Putin, "direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine were resumed."
Each side presented its vision of the terms for ending the conflict. The heads of delegations are in direct contact. We expect the negotiations to continue.
He traditionally added that lasting peace is impossible without eradicating the "causes of the conflict," which include "threats to Russia's security that arose as a result of NATO expansion and attempts to draw Ukraine into this aggressive military bloc."
These threats must be eliminated. And a new system of security guarantees for Russia and Ukraine must be formed as an integral part of the pan-continental architecture of equal and indivisible security in Eurasia.
According to him, for peace to be lasting, "the new territorial realities that emerged after the entry of Crimea, Sevastopol, "DPR", "LPR", Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions into the Russian Federation as a result of the referendums held there, must be recognized and formalized in international law."
"And, finally, the neutral, non-aligned and non-nuclear status of Ukraine should be ensured, i.e., those conditions that are prescribed in the declaration of independence of Ukraine of 1990 and on the basis of which Ukrainian statehood was once recognized by Russia and the entire international community," Lavrov summarized.
Recall
State Duma deputy, member of the defense committee, General Viktor Sobolev stated the need to continue the so-called "special military operation" and seize new territories of Ukraine.