Russia has been clear about the goals of its military operation and the terms on which it will end, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has told US journalist Tucker Carlson.
President Vladimir Putin is often falsely accused of refusing to negotiate with Ukraine, Lavrov told Carlson in the interview, which was published on Friday. Two years ago, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky outlawed any talks with Moscow, apparently based on the belief that he and the West would dictate terms of a truce, the top Russian diplomat noted.
“For starters, why don’t you tell him [Zelensky] to cancel it [the order] publicly? This will be a signal that he wants negotiations,” Lavrov said.
Asked about the terms Russia would agree to, Lavrov pointed Carlson to Putin’s June speech, in which the Russian president laid out Moscow’s position; Ukraine would have to withdraw its forces from Russian territory, ensure the rights of Russian-speaking residents, and become a neutral, nuclear-free state.
“The key principle is non-bloc status of Ukraine,” Lavrov told Carlson. “No NATO. Absolutely. No military bases, no military exercises on Ukrainian soil with participation of foreign troops.”
Likewise, Moscow will not tolerate any deal under which Ukraine could continue to discriminate against the Russian language, media, culture, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the foreign minister added.
“We are not playing a double game,” Lavrov said. “What President Putin announced is the goal of our operation. It’s fair. It’s fully in line with the UN Charter. First of all, the rights: language rights, minority rights, national minority rights, religious rights.”
In February 2022, when the conflict escalated, Moscow pointed to Kiev’s violation of the Minsk agreements, repression of Russian-speaking residents of Ukraine, and attacks on the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. Since then, Ukraine has also outlawed the canonical Orthodox Church and sought to replace it with a ‘cut-out’ created by the government.
Russia’s objectives are also “fully in line” with the principles of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which the US is also a member of, Lavrov said. The OSCE has repeatedly declared that no one should expand their security at the expense of others and that no organization in its sphere can claim dominance, he told Carlson.
“NATO was doing exactly the opposite. So, we have legitimacy in our position,” Lavrov said. “No NATO on our doorsteps because OSCE agreed that this should not be the case if it hurts us.”
The foreign minister noted that the West has been saying “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” while breaking that pledge in back-channel communications, but also implicitly trying to craft Russia’s fate without Russia – and that, he said, is something Moscow cannot and will not accept.
Watch the full interview here.