MOSCOW, February 10. /TASS/. Any peace treaty on Ukraine must include provisions on the elimination of the root causes of the conflict, otherwise they will not be resolved, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.
"If speaking about the Ukrainian settlement, they [the United States] know our position perfectly well. The root causes will not disappear if we do not take into account the task of eliminating them in any peace treaty. They are ready for this," Lavrov said in an interview with Russia’s NTV television channel commenting on contacts with the United States regarding this issue.
On February 4-5, in Abu Dhabi, the second round of trilateral negotiations between Russia, the United States, and Ukraine took place. Following the talks, US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff announced that Moscow and Kiev had agreed to exchange 314 prisoners of war. According to him, the delegations from Russia and Ukraine intend to continue consultations on conflict resolution in the coming weeks.
The first round of trilateral security consultations involving Russia, Ukraine, and the United States was held on January 23-24, also in Abu Dhabi.