MOSCOW, August 27. /TASS/. Only wishful thinkers in the West can expect that Russia will swallow the bait of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky's formula; negotiations are possible only without ultimatums, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference following talks with Yemeni Foreign Minister Shaya Mohsen al-Zindani.
Asked whether Russia was considering participation in a new meeting on the Ukrainian issue, if it were to be held in one of the countries of the global South, as Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky suggested, Lavrov noted that "the initiative is the same" - it started as the Copenhagen format and then was transformed into the Buergenstock conference.
"The essence at all these processes is an absolutely futile, dead-end formula, so-called, which was put forward by Zelensky. Therefore, everything that is in the same class of events that press for this formula as the sole possible solution, of course, only some wishful thinkers dreamers in Ukraine, in Kiev and in the West can think that Russia, will swallow the bait, if you don’t mind my saying so. This is a game. They want to put us in a situation where we will fall for something that suits Zelensky. There can be, as the president has said repeatedly, only negotiations in which no one puts forward any ultimatums to anyone, contrary to what was the case in February 2014, when Viktor Yanukovich, the then president of Ukraine, agreed with the opposition in exchange for the guarantee of France, Germany and Poland that they would create a government of national unity and hold public national elections," Lavrov said.
He is certain that had the agreement, which the Ukrainian opposition ruined at the instigation of the United States and other Western countries, been implemented, Ukraine would now have been within the borders of 1991.
"The West is dissuading Ukraine from holding normal negotiations - human and based on generally accepted principles. It is doing everything to make Ukraine continue the escalation, as they call it. In the hope - now there are more and more suspicions on this score - that we will lose self-control and do something that will allow the West, as they hope, to change the chessboard. It won't work. We will achieve our goals, and we will achieve our goals in a way that, as President Vladimir Putin said, will meet the interests of, first, saving our people and, second, protecting those people whom the fascist regime in Kiev has labeled terrorist, whom it has deprived of elementary rights, including the right to their religion, to worship, to language and much more. Therefore, it will not be possible to provoke us. All these Buergenstock get-togethers and so-called peace formulas are crafty," Lavrov continued.
"If the West is really interested - because Zelensky has nothing to do with it - if the West is genuinely interested in normalizing the situation in Europe, from which the Europeans themselves are already suffering, then we should gather around the negotiating table calmly, without any papers called 'Zelensky's formula', and start talking honestly." The Russian president confirmed that we were ready for this. I have now given three examples of situations where we supported such negotiations. But how can one trust those who have lied thrice? But we'll see. They should draw conclusions," Lavrov said.