Lavrov Sees Ceasefire in Ukraine as Road to Nowhere, Calls for Reliable Agreements
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Idle talk about resolving the Ukraine issue cannot satisfy Moscow because a ceasefire would be a dead-end at this point, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Russian and foreign media.
"A lot has been said on the issue. The (Russian) president has repeatedly spoken about it, particularly during his question-and-answer session, the Valdai Discussion Club event and on other occasions. We won’t be satisfied with idle talk. What we have heard so far is talk about the need to come up with a ceasefire, and no one actually hides that the goal of the ceasefire is to buy time in order to continue flooding Ukraine with weapons and make it possible for them to put themselves together, carry out a mobilization and so on," he said, TASS reported.
"A ceasefire is a dead-end," Lavrov stressed. "We need final, legally binding agreements that will document conditions for ensuring Russia’s security and, of course, the legitimate interests of our neighbors, but in a manner based on international law, which will make it impossible to violate those agreements," he added.
The top Russian diplomat said those accords should first and foremost address the root causes of the Ukraine crisis. "The first of the two main causes was the violation of all promises not to expand NATO to the east and the aggressive policy of NATO countries aimed at absorbing the entire geopolitical space up to our borders.
"The same fate was prepared from Ukraine, and they continue talking about it. As for the second root cause, it’s certainly about the absolutely discriminatory actions that the Kiev (government) took after the coup, officially proclaiming and legally establishing a policy to destroy all things Russian, including the language, media outlets, culture and even the use of the Russian language in everyday life, as well as a ban on the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church," Lavrov emphasized.
