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Peace talks can only take place once Kiev adheres to law — Lavrov

The Russian foreign minister stressed that it was not right to leave things as they are and sit down at the negotiating table as though nothing is happening

NIZHNY NOVGOROD, June 11. /TASS/. The Ukrainian regime needs to start following the law before any peace talks can begin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"When our friends from various countries open-heartedly offer to negotiate, they sometimes say: ‘Let us simply stop hostilities right now and begin talks.’ Well, is the demand that the rights of any national minority, especially one as big as the Russian one in Ukraine, be respected an artificial preliminary condition? I don’t think so. The Ukrainian regime should get back to the legal framework all other responsible and honest members of the world community are living in," he told a news conference after the BRICS ministerial meeting.

He stressed that it is not right to leave things as they are and sit down at the negotiating table as though nothing is happening.

He recalled that the Istanbul talks with Ukraine in April 2022 yielded a document that made it possible to put an end to the hostilities. "As you know, the Ukrainian participants acknowledged later that they had been barred by the British, American and other puppeteers from this (signing a treaty with Russia - TASS)," Lavrov said.

"I would like to ask those who are seeking to promote initiatives on the beginning of negotiating processes to note two key things," the minister went on to say. "First, don’t forget that in September 2022 [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky signed a decree banning all Ukrainian officials from holding any talks with [Russian President] Vladimir Putin’s government. In early May 2024, the Ukrainian foreign ministry came out with an official statement saying that Ukraine doesn’t recognize Vladimir Putin as a democratically elected legitimate president."

"Second, those who are pressing for such initiatives are saying all the right things about the indivisibility of security, inadmissibility of blocs, the necessity to analyze the causes, should take into account that the Russian language is totally prohibited in Ukraine by law in blatant violation of all possible international conventions on the rights of national minorities," Lavrov noted, adding that on top of that, Ukraine is openly exploiting Nazi practices and is glorifying those who were condemned by the Nuremberg Trials.