MOSCOW, April 26. /TASS/. There is a connection between the situation on the ground in Ukraine and the contours of a peaceful settlement, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Channel One.
"As for the connection of the situation on the ground and the contours of a hypothetical or, say, an eventual peaceful settlement, of course, such a connection exists," he said.
"As we stressed from the very beginning in that statement that Russian President Vladimir Putin said announcing this special operation, we, of course, above all, want for the Ukrainian people to be able to decide on their own how to live from now on," the Russian top diplomat noted.
Lavrov compared the actions of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky with regards to the Minsk Accords to a sketch comedy show, reiterating that Zelensky himself "publicly buried" this document while accusing Russia of not complying with it.
"[The Minsk Accords] were publicly buried by Zelensky. He refused to implement them just as the decision of the December 2019 Normandy summit in Paris. Even though there was nothing about Lugansk, Donetsk or Russia. He only had to approve a law on Donbass’ special status. That was all he had to do. Him personally. It did not depend on anyone else. He signed it. Then, for three years he was complaining that Russia was not implementing the Minsk Accords. That’s a sketch comedy show," the Russian top diplomat said in an interview with Channel One.
According to Lavrov, this entire time Kiev was imitating talks on implementing the Minsk set of measures. "Now, it is the imitation of talks on concluding agreements with the Russian Federation. Much like the imitation of democracy. The rejection of democracy, culture and the dictatorship of radicals," he added.
The US uses force ignoring the existing norms of international law and the UN Charter if it suddenly decides that something threatens its national security, Russian Foreign Minister said.
"When the US suddenly decided that there is a threat to its interests over 10,000 kilometers away, whether it is in the former Yugoslavia, in Iraq or somewhere else in the Middle East, without pausing, without any legal compunctions and without attempts to even look at international law and the UN Charter, troops are sent, civilian targets are being shelled," the Russian top diplomat said.
He noted how during the Yugoslavian conflict, civilian infrastructure in Belgrade was targeted. "How it was in Belgrade - bridges, passenger trains. A TV center was destroyed. [Then UK Prime Minister] Tony Blair said it wasn’t a TV center but an outlet for aggressive Serbian propaganda. Pretty much like now President Macron does not give accreditation to RT and Sputnik, calling them not media outlets but propaganda instruments. So these manners, habits and tendencies are deeply entrenched," Lavrov noted.