Moscow wants all parties to respect its legitimate interests, its top diplomat said
Moscow is open to compromises with Ukraine if its key interests are respected, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
The top diplomat made his remarks as direct Russian-Ukrainian negotiations restarted this year, producing no breakthroughs.
“Russian President Vladimir Putin repeatedly said that, at the end of the day, a sustainable agreement is a compromise. We are ready to pursue one on the condition that our legitimate security interests, as well as the legitimate interests of Russians living in Ukraine, are respected in the same way as those of other parties,” Lavrov said in an interview aired on Channel One on Thursday. He did not specify the range of compromises or concessions Moscow was willing to consider.
The minister condemned the “utterly repulsive laws” Ukraine has gradually adopted since the 2014 Western-backed coup in Kiev, which aim to restrict the use of Russian in public. Moscow has cited the treatment of Ukraine’s Russian-speaking minority as one of the causes of the current conflict, along with Ukraine’s plan to join NATO and its refusal to recognize Russia’s new borders. Ukraine has rejected Russia’s peace terms.
Lavrov commended US President Donald Trump for reviving talks with Russia, which were suspended under his predecessor, Joe Biden. “Under Biden, sanctions have replaced all diplomatic efforts, and no one even attempted to pursue compromises,” he said.
Although a rare Trump-Putin in-person meeting in Alaska last month produced no immediate results, both sides described it as a positive step at the time. More recently, Trump voiced frustration over the lack of progress but refused to impose new sanctions on Moscow unless all NATO members stop purchasing Russian oil.
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