MOSCOW, September 15. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the European Union is inventing legal grounds to remove Russian assets from Belgian jurisdiction, calling the move a criminal attempt to "create collective impunity."
Lavrov also said growing Western interference with freedom of navigation is a concern, as European states have detained 12 vessels since January of this year.
TASS compiled the Russian foreign minister’s key statements at an ambassadors’ roundtable on the Ukraine settlement.
Ukraine settlement
- Russia welcomes US interest in supporting a settlement in Ukraine, because Washington understands the root causes of the conflict, unlike other Western countries that insist Ukraine has the right to do whatever it wants.
- The United States has never proposed to Russia that it would come to terms with Iran in exchange for Russia striking a deal with Ukraine, as it knows that's not how Moscow operates politically. "As we say, this isn't something to be bargained. There was some chatter about this somewhere. Our US counterparts never proposed any such trade-offs. And I think they did not do so because they fully understand that this is not our way of conducting our business or political maneuvering."
- The European Union continues to take an "absolutely dead-end position" on Ukraine, unlike the United States, because it insists that Ukraine should be allowed to do whatever it wants.
- Western countries that provide weapons and money to the Kiev regime are "becoming direct accomplices in terrorist attacks and war crimes."
- Ukraine remains the "arrowhead of the West’s war" against Russia, so what Kiev thinks is inconsequential.
- The United States may call for resolving the territorial issue in Ukraine, but Russia considers the people involved the main issue, because their lives and fate are at stake. "Let them call it a territorial issue; for us, it is an issue of people and the fate of people who lived for centuries in Crimea, Donbass, and Novorossiya, whose ancestors founded Odessa, Nikolayev, and ports on the Black and Azov Seas, and whom the Kiev regime that came to power through a coup called terrorists."
- Russia will not halt its special military operation during negotiations on a settlement in and around Ukraine.
- Moscow remains ready for talks on Ukraine and has never tried to delay or complicate the process. "We are always ready for negotiations; we have never delayed them or tried to complicate them."
- Russia cannot forget that the opposing side in the Ukrainian conflict is an "absolutely criminal regime" that Europe wants to preserve.
- Moscow has never rejected negotiations and is ready to conduct them in either a bilateral or trilateral format. "Whenever there is a willingness to engage in serious negotiations, we do not reject them. By all means: trilateral or bilateral - either is fine."
- The world would have been living without war in Ukraine for a year already if Europe had not pulled the United States away from the Anchorage agreements. "That is an obvious fact."
- Russia is not pursuing any arbitrary objectives in Ukraine, because its priority is to minimize casualties. "We are doing everything we can to minimize human losses, first and foremost among civilians, but we are also taking special care of our servicemen."
- Moscow may resume negotiations on Ukraine if the other side is ready, because "we have something to say."
Mobilization in Ukraine
- Forced mobilization in Ukraine could soon extend to women. "I have no doubt that women will be next soon."
Sanctions and the Russian assets dispute
- The Western sanctions against Russia have produced disastrous results for the countries that imposed them. "In addition to sanctions, quasi-judicial proceedings have been launched. The West imposed the sanctions without waiting for the outcome of those proceedings. The results we have seen so far are disastrous for our Western colleagues."
- The European Union is inventing legal grounds to remove Russian assets from Belgian jurisdiction. "This is an absolutely blatant criminal attempt to divide responsibility and create collective impunity."
- The European Commission wants to confiscate Russian assets, but Moscow won't allow that. "The European Commission still wants to confiscate these assets and then return them to us only after we pay Ukraine some kind of reparations. We will secure the return of our foreign-exchange and gold reserves; I have no doubt about that."
Western interference with freedom of navigation
- Western interference with freedom of navigation has become more frequent and is causing concern. "European states have detained 12 vessels since January this year based on made-up sections of international law, such as the so-called ‘shadow fleet’ and others. They stop vessels on suspicion that they lack a ‘nationality,’ without any legitimate grounds, claiming that the vessels are supposedly sailing under false flags."
- Russia is restructuring its logistics and will fulfill all its supply commitments to its partners despite Western interference with navigation. "We understand the importance of our hydrocarbon and grain exports to the energy and food security of countries in the Global South and East, and we are restructuring our logistics and will fulfill all our commitments despite the unlawful actions of Western neocolonialists."
A new Western adventure
- The West has launched a "new pseudo-legal adventure" to establish a "special tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine." "They are carrying out this work through the Council of Europe without the least hint of objectivity. The guilty party has already been identified in the tribunal’s name. The fact that only the UN Security Council can determine whether aggression has occurred is being ignored. Ukraine, one of the parties to the conflict, is a co-founder of this special tribunal. This is absurd and nonsensical. It is therefore clear that this tribunal will be nothing more than a ‘sham.’"
- Russia will regard other countries joining the tribunal as a hostile step. "Russia cannot regard such a step as anything other than unfriendly and hostile."
Genocide cases in Donbass
- The International Court of Justice is still considering one question: whether Ukraine committed genocide in Donbass. "It remains under consideration by the court."
- Russia provided the relevant evidence at the court’s request, and the court accepted the evidence in December of last year and accepted Russia’s submissions for full consideration.
- Russia expects the International Court of Justice to issue a verdict soon in the case concerning Ukraine’s genocide in Donbass. "We expect a verdict soon."
Activities of the International Criminal Court
- The Ukraine case has become a "gold mine" for the International Criminal Court (ICC). "Britain, the Netherlands, Canada, and Japan immediately provided millions in funding, with Britain, of course, among them. In announcing their contributions to this part of the ICC’s work, they proudly said the funds would be used to investigate Russia’s actions."
- Western financing of the proceedings would be considered blatant bribery of a court in any national legal system. "In other words, the proceedings against a defendant chosen in advance were openly financed. Any national legal system would consider this blatant bribery of the court and a politically ordered criminal proceeding."
NATO and Western provocations
- Russia is ready to seek compromises on Ukraine but has never come off the position that NATO needs to stay away from its borders. "We have never, ever changed our position since the start of the special military operation, when we announced the goals we had set for ourselves. We are ready to seek reasonable compromises within this position, but fundamentally, we have not changed our goals of ensuring our security, preventing NATO from setting up shop on our borders, and ensuring the legitimate rights of Russian and Russian-speaking people who have lived on these lands for centuries."
- Western provocateurs heard Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warning that a European attack on Russia would result in a completely different and very short war. "I repeated that statement. And I think those involved in various provocations heard it."