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Russia’s Lavrov surprised by persistent Western efforts to proceed with Normandy format

The Russian foreign minister also mentioned the EU-Ukraine summit in Kiev. In a joint statement, Russia "was directly named the aggressor." "In such very rude, I would say, categorical terms, we are asked to fulfill the Minsk agreements since, as it was stated, we are a party to this document. This is far from and opposite to the truth," he noted

MINSK, October 14. /TASS/. The persistent efforts of the Normandy Four’s Western members to continue the work without fulfilling the Minsk agreements is surprising, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday.

"Actually, I was a little surprised that our Western colleagues were promoting the resumption of the Normandy format with such assertiveness, without the implementation of previous decisions on their part," the top diplomat stated.

Furthermore, the Russian foreign minister mentioned the EU-Ukraine summit in Kiev, which resulted in a joint statement signed, in particular, by President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and President of the European Council Charles Michel. In this statement, Russia "was directly named the aggressor." "In such very rude, I would say, categorical terms, we are asked to fulfill the Minsk agreements since, as it was stated, we are a party to this document," Lavrov went on to say. "This is far from and opposite to the truth and contradicts even those ambiguous statements made by the German and French experts."

As the top diplomat noted, the German and French co-authors of the Minsk agreements earlier refrained from identifying the parties to the Donbass conflict in order to preserve "constructive uncertainty." "Currently, instead of constructive uncertainty Ms. von der Leyen and Mr. Michel, as well as Mr. [President of Ukraine Vladimir] Zelensky, have directly named Russia a party to the conflict. We want to understand what is happening in the EU and how we can work further," Lavrov said.

On Wednesday, Spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova stated that the issues on the agenda of the Normandy Four’s meeting at the level of the top diplomats were being worked out following the relevant instructions from the leaders of Russia, France and Germany after the phone conversation on October 11. The Kremlin noted that the sides agreed to hold a meeting in order to address, among other things, possible opportunities for arranging a Normandy summit.