MOSCOW, April 4. /TASS/. Russia is ready at any moment to negotiate a fair settlement of the Ukrainian conflict with the Kiev regime’s handlers based on existing realities and a balance of interests, but the only way out of the stalemate is if the West lets go of the Zelensky ‘formula,’ Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a meeting with foreign ambassadors on the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict.
According to the top diplomat, Russia is waiting for the West to take the first step in resolving the conflict, considers statements that NATO membership will ensure Ukraine's security to be illogical and is wary of the terrorist nature of the Kiev regime.
TASS has summarized Lavrov's main points.
Ready for dialogue
Russia is ready for dialogue on Ukraine and guarantees of its security, but only on equal terms, taking into account Russian interests: "An honest conversation [between Russia and Ukraine is possible] based on new realities, based on Russia's security interests."
"We are, of course, ready to ensure any agreements that take into account the security interests of other countries, including Ukraine."
"Situations on the battlefield determine new realities."
Almost all the countries of the Global South, on which the West is calling to attend meetings on a settlement in Ukraine, want to convey the message that consultations without Russia's participation are pointless, "but the West won't stop this." "They are driven by the desire to do everything possible to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia."
West’s role and dead-end Zelensky 'formula'
Russia realized after the deal tentatively reached at the 2022 Istanbul talks suddenly fell through that they should be negotiating about a settlement in Ukraine not with the country’s nominal leader, President Vladimir Zelensky, but rather with those who are pulling his strings and to whom he answers.
"The [Zelensky] formula is well known, it has been published, it is an ultimatum demanding that Russia surrender, capitulate, retreat to the 1991 borders. True, recently, Mr. Zelensky ‘kindly’ said that it is possible to start from the February 2022 border. Well, there is no harm in dreaming.
The West, if it is ready to move away from Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky's dead-end 'peace formula,' should say this itself: 'It's not Russia’s move to make.'"
"The situation is a stalemate, but we are not the ones who brought it to a stalemate."
Russia has "repeatedly shown its good will" and is always ready to show it again: "It was not us who destroyed the Istanbul Document - everyone knows that very well. It was not us who passed the laws prohibiting negotiations with Ukraine, and it was not us who came up with ultimatums in the form of the 'Zelensky formula' and other variations."
NATO and security
Western countries are trying to force all NATO members to sign up for mandatory assistance to Kiev "through strict stick discipline."
The West's arguments that NATO membership will ensure Ukraine's security are contradictory and defy logic.
Claims that Russia is allegedly hatching plans to attack alliance countries are "folly and nonsense," as Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously said.
Kiev's terrorism
Today, Ukraine has become a full-fledged terrorist state: "For ten years it has been terrorizing the citizens of its own country and beyond its borders."
Kiev's involvement in the terrorist attack on Crocus City Hall is obvious. "Especially since Ukraine's involvement in many other terrorist acts on Russian territory is no longer in doubt."
The Russian Foreign Ministry handed over an official demand to the Ukrainian authorities to take immediate steps to stop any support for terrorist activities, extradite those responsible and pay reparations. "We demand that Kiev fulfill its obligations [under UN conventions]."
Ukraine's unwillingness to respect human rights
When the special military operation began, the Kiev regime decided to essentially shirk any human rights obligations it had, and "the special procedures of the UN Human Rights Council indulged it." "But even then, numerous images of Ukrainian military atrocities had already traveled around the world."
Unlike Russia, no one in the West will push for an objective, open investigation of the crime in Bucha, where "a faux trial was staged accusing Russia of killing civilians."
Moscow has appealed to the UN Security Council to force the Kiev regime to at least provide the names of those whose bodies were allegedly displayed in Bucha. "I have appealed directly to the UN Secretary-General to use his authority to make Kiev and its masters provide such a list. No one is doing anything."
Situation with Russian language in Ukraine
Intercepted Ukrainian military conversations on the front line show that they are more comfortable speaking in Russian, but the authorities in Kiev do not care about this. "But they are being brought to their knees, the whole nation is being brought to its knees, so that they forget this language."
Using the Russian language in Ukraine can be considered an administrative offense. "This is despite the fact that the vast majority of Ukrainians still speak Russian because it is so convenient for them, because it is the tradition of their families, their relatives."