MOSCOW, August 23. /TASS/. The "quiet diplomacy" which senior Western officials often refer to when seeking agreements without excessive publicity will not work in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Hungary’s newspaper Magyar Nemzet published on Monday.
According to the minister, "the continuous degradation of observing basic human rights in Ukraine cannot but raise concerns." He recalled that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky signed the law entitled "On indigenous peoples of Ukraine."
"Along with the laws on the state language and education adopted earlier, it significantly infringes upon interests of Russians, Hungarians and other nations that historically populate the lands of modern Ukraine," the minister stressed. "It is essentially about artificial segregation of people into categories with differing rights, which very much resembles theories and practices of Nazi Germany."
The top Russian diplomat pointed out that Moscow had "repeatedly drew attention of relevant international institutions to these incidents," particularly the UN, OSCE, Council of Europe and UNESCO. "It is vital that the Kiev authorities hear public criticism from European politicians. The so-called quiet diplomacy which our Western colleagues like to refer to will clearly not work in Ukraine," he added.