All news

Russia shares many peace initiatives, but Kiev and West reject all of them — Lavrov

According to the Russian foreign minister, Moscow has "meticulously studied" all proposed peace initiatives

MOSCOW, July 13. /TASS/. Russia shares many of its partners' proposals regarding the peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian conflict, but the West and Kiev reject all peace initiatives, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Lenta.ru online daily.

"We agree with many of our partners’ proposals, such as complying with the international law and the UN Charter, abandoning the Cold War mentality, resolving the humanitarian crisis, ensuring the safety of nuclear power plants, ending unilateral sanctions, and refusing to use the world economy for political purposes," Lavrov stated.

"At the same time, we have to admit that [Ukrainian President] Vladimir Zelensky’s Western curators completely refuse any form of de-escalation," he continued. "The Kiev regime has directly and immediately rejected the possibility of talks on peace initiatives proposed by China, Brazil and African countries."

According to the Russian foreign minister, Moscow has "meticulously studied" all proposed peace initiatives.

"We have held special consultations with several of our partners and discussed their ideas in detail," Lavrov noted. "In mid-June, President Vladimir Putin received heads of several African states in St Petersburg."

"In late May, we had a very trust-based and warm meeting with Chinese Special Representative for Eurasian Affairs, Head of the Chinese delegation on Ukrainian crisis settlement Li Hui in Moscow," said. "We had a substantive discussion with Chief Advisor of the Presidency of Brazil on International Affairs Celso Amorim, who visited Russia in late March."

However, Lavrov said, "Kiev did not find anything better to do than to beg for evidence of ‘reliability’ from those who would like to become a mediator in the negotiation process."

"In particular, Defense Minister Aleksander Reznikov demanded that China persuade Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine. Otherwise, contacts with Chinese negotiators would be a waste of time in the view of the Kiev politician," Lavrov added.