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Zelensky hysterically demanded that Western countries "bring Russia to its knees" — Lavrov

The minister also called ridiculous the West's attempts to lure countries to the Swiss meeting on Ukraine and then address Russia with an ultimatum

ASTANA, May 21. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, in discussing the Swiss conference with representatives of the Western countries, was hysterically demanding support for his "peace formula" as a means of "bringing Russia to its knees," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told the media after a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization foreign ministers.

"In late April, while discussing with foreign ambassadors in Kiev the idea of a ‘Swiss conference’, Zelensky, according to some of the participants, spent most of the time improvising hectically and almost hysterically to demand support for his 'peace formula' as a means of forcing Russia to its knees’," Lavrov said.

"A person who does not feel the need for retaining self-control begins to speak what’s really on his mind," Lavrov said.

He also called ridiculous the West's attempts to lure countries to the Swiss meeting on Ukraine and then address Russia with an ultimatum.

"Those who are now being persuaded by hook or by crook to come to Switzerland [to the conference on Ukraine] to create an impression of large attendance, to participate in this 'family photo' to let the organizers later talk at length about broad support for the 'Zelensky formula,' should understand where they are being lured," Lavrov. "They are being lured to support an ultimatum, which would eventually be presented to Russia. This is ridiculous."

Lavrov emphasized that such "games have nothing to do with diplomacy, as well as other foreign policy moves by Western partners, who have lost their diplomatic skills."