Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s peace initiatives have become an annoyance for everyone and are a “pure ultimatum,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday following a meeting on strategic cooperation with the Arab states of the Persian Gulf.
Speaking at a press briefing in Riyadh, Lavrov stressed that the West’s insistence on sticking to Zelensky’s so-called ‘peace formula’ suggests that it does not intend to negotiate with Moscow on equal terms.
“[Zelensky’s] initiative has long been known, it has become a pain in the neck for everyone, it is a pure ultimatum,” Lavrov said. “The fact that the West is clinging to this ultimatum means only one thing: the West does not want to negotiate honestly,” the foreign minister added.
He also suggested that Ukraine’s backers want to do everything in their power so that Russia “gets closer to a situation where it will be possible to declare that we have been dealt a strategic defeat on the battlefield.”
Lavrov went on to note that Russia has never even seriously considered Zelensky’s initiative and has only expressed “surprise that someone is still falling for it.”
The minister also noted that many of the discussions of a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict have also been omitting a crucial factor that was one of the underlying reasons for Russia launching its offensive against Kiev in 2022.
“[German Chancellor Olaf] Scholz has said that it is time to start negotiating,” Lavrov said, noting that German media outlets have hinted that such talks would proceed from the fact that “the territorial issue will have to be resolved taking into account the realities on the ground.”
However, the Russian diplomat insisted that “it is not about territories” and that Moscow “never wanted someone else’s land” and instead wanted “people who are an integral part of the Russian world, Russian culture, Russian language, history, religion, to be treated humanely, as required by international law.”
Lavrov stressed that while figuring out the time and place for negotiations on Ukraine would be relatively easy, it was much more important to agree on what would be discussed at such talks.
“If we discuss calls for a ceasefire and think about territorial exchanges, this is not serious,” the diplomat said. “The problem is not in the territories, the problem is in the rights of people who have been trampled by law and whom none of the initiatives floating in the political space specifically mention.”