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Lavrov: correspondence with German, French counterparts shows Kiev torpedoes Minsk deal

Russia's top diplomat stressed that Kiev showed no intention to act on the provisions of the corresponding agreements, but wished to rewrite them

© Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS

MOSCOW, November 18. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that his correspondence with French and German counterparts Jean-Yves Le Drian and Heiko Maas regarding a Normandy Quartet ministerial level meeting, made public on Wednesday, clearly shows that Kiev torpedoes the Minsk Accords.

"As far as the published correspondence is concerned, it explains well enough the gist of the matter: not who invited whom and where and who was unable to come and why, but the gist of the sabotage, which the regime in Kiev systematically conducts in relation to the Minsk Accords," Lavrov said at an enlarged board meeting of the Foreign Ministry on Thursday.

He stressed that Kiev showed no intention to act on the provisions of the corresponding agreements, but wished to rewrite them.

"With this in mind they try to convene meetings - at the ministerial or summit level - hoping that once everybody is at the negotiating table, there will be a chance to start persuading Lavrov or [President Vladimir] Putin over a cup of tea: let us adjust this and that just a little bit, because Kiev is utterly unable to comply with it," he said.

Lavrov slammed as "utterly outrageous" Ukrainian Defense Minister Alexey Reznikov’s letter to the Venice Commission, which has been circulated on the Internet in this connection.

"The whole text of the letter boils down to one idea - the Minsk Accords are legally void. What else can we talk about then?" Lavrov asked. "Should we agree to have a meeting against this background, the Kiev regime’s delegates will start saying right away: ‘Look, the Russians have come to negotiate within the Normandy Quartet. This means that they agree with our interpretation of the Minsk deal.’ This will never happen. We will have a meeting exclusively when they report to us that Kiev will implement everything that is contained in the previous decisions".

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Ukraine crisis Foreign policy

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