MOSCOW, October 4. /TASS/. Moscow does not care whether Western countries recognize the four new Russian regions or not, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters on Tuesday.
"We do not care at all [about the West’s recognition]," Russia’s top diplomat said. "Of course, the entire world had better face this new reality, it was inevitable," Lavrov said.
Russia’s top diplomat said there were a huge number of legal arguments cementing the principle of equality and the right of peoples to self-determination, referring to the UN Charter. He also pointed to the UN General Assembly’s declaration which clearly obliged everybody to respect the territorial integrity of countries where governments acknowledge the right of an individual country to self-determination and represent the entire population.
According to Lavrov, Ukraine’s current regime led by Vladimir Zelensky has so far not met the above criteria, nor did the previous administration of Pyotr Poroshenko comply with them. On the contrary, he insisted, grave violations were reported by both regimes. "Never would nor will Donbass residents ever agree that the people who illegally seized power in Kiev represent the people residing in Donbass or in other areas of Ukraine whose residents inextricably link themselves to the Russian civilization," the Russian foreign minister argued.
"This is why, in terms of international law, everybody had better show responsibility and face this obvious and objective reality," Lavrov concluded.