ANTALYA /Turkey/, March 10. /TASS/. Russian-Ukrainian negotiations in Turkey’s Antalya did not envisage agreements on the ceasefire, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday after his talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba.
"I am not surprised that Mister Kuleba stated that it was impossible to agree on the ceasefire," Lavrov said. "No one had plans here to agree on the ceasefire. The Ukrainian side is well aware of all provisions and the subsequent order of the following steps stipulated by the proposals."
Lavrov said that if Kiev wanted to announce today that "all of [Ukraine’s] good deeds failed," then it fits "within the logic of Ukrainian diplomacy and the Ukrainian politics," which is aimed at external factors, that imply an immediate perception of publicity substituting a real work."
"We have arrived here not to change the track of negotiations, which was formed by the Russian and Ukrainian presidents and which evolves on the territory of Belarus," Lavrov said. "This is where all practical issues are discussed, this is where it was explained what is necessary to be done to end this crisis."
"It concerns the demilitarization, the denazification and the provisions of the neutral status of Ukraine as well as a number of other issues," the Russian foreign minister added.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said earlier in the day that he Ukrainian side is ready for diplomatic solutions of the conflict with Russia, but see none at the moment.
"We are ready for diplomacy, we are searching for diplomatic solutions, but while there are none of them yet, we will continue dedicatedly protecting our land sacrificing our lives," he said after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
"Ukraine has not surrendered, is not surrendering and will never surrender," the top Ukrainian diplomat said.
Tensions escalated along the line of contact in eastern Ukraine on the morning of February 17. The self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR, LPR) reported the heaviest shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in months. On February 18, the heads of the LPR and DPR, Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin, announced the evacuation of the republics’ residents to Russia. A general mobilization was ordered in the Donbass republics on February 19.
On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed decrees at the ceremony in the Kremlin on recognizing the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. Putin met with DPR and LPR (the Lugansk People’s Republic) leaders, Denis Pushilin and Leonid Pasechnik, and signed with them the treaties on friendship, cooperation and mutual aid between Russia and both republics.
Russian President Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories.
The Russian Defense Ministry reassured earlier that Russian troops are not targeting Ukrainian cities, but are limited to surgically striking and incapacitating Ukrainian military infrastructure. There are no threats whatsoever to the civilian population.