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Military operation in Ukraine

Russia wants all peoples of Ukraine to freely determine their destiny — Lavrov

"We want the Ukrainian people or, as [Russian President Vladimir] Putin said, all the peoples living on the territory of modern-day Ukraine to be able to freely, without trying to drive them into the clutches of Bandera psychology, determine their destiny," the top diplomat said

MOSCOW, February 25. /TASS/. Russia fiercely opposes efforts to keep the people of Ukraine under the clutches of pro-Bandera propaganda, but upholds free choice for their destiny, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday at a news conference following talks with First Deputy Foreign Minister of the DPR Sergey Peresada and LPR Foreign Minister Vladislav Deinego.

"We want the Ukrainian people or, as [Russian President Vladimir] Putin said, all the peoples living on the territory of modern-day Ukraine to be able to freely, without trying to drive them into the clutches of Bandera psychology, determine their destiny," he said.

"Russia will ensure the demilitarization of Ukraine," the minister stressed, "Russia will ensure the denazification of Ukraine. We suffered too much from Nazism, and so did the Ukrainian people suffer enormously from Nazism to be able to turn a blind eye to all this.

Touching upon the topic of demilitarization in more detail, the foreign minister drew attention to the statements of American generals and colonels who, "when they retire, begin to tell the truth." "They practically say in unison that the United States would never tolerate the deployment of weapons that would lead to the militarization of their sphere," Lavrov pointed out.

Lavrov also recalled the words of former US representative to NATO Ivo Daalder regarding the 2008 Bucharest Summit decision to open the doors to Ukraine and Georgia to join the bloc. "Daalder later called this Bucharest decision the biggest mistake in the history of the alliance. Without any euphemisms," Lavrov stated.

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Foreign policy Military operation in Ukraine

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