The lifting of sanctions against Moscow is part of Russia-Ukraine peace talks, which are “difficult” but continue on a daily basis, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with the Chinese news agency X.
Kyiv warned on Friday that talks to end the Russian-led invasion, now in its third month, were on the verge of collapse.
“At this stage, the Russian and Ukrainian delegations are discussing a draft agreement on a daily basis via teleconference,” Lavrov said in an interview with Xinhua, which was published on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website.
Sergei Lavrov accused the West – and NATO in particular – of standing in the way of reaching a political agreement to end the conflict in Ukraine. If the US and NATO are really interested in resolving the Ukrainian crisis, then they must first change their attitude and stop supplying Kyiv with weapons and ammunition, said the Russian Foreign Minister.
“The agenda of the talks includes issues of de-Nazification, recognition of the new geopolitical reality, lifting of sanctions and the status of the Russian language,” Lavrov said, without elaborating.
“We are in favor of continuing the negotiations, although they are difficult,” he added.
Among other things, he said, more than 1 million civilians have been evacuated from areas of Ukraine where hostilities are raging and have found safe haven in Russia. Among them are about 120,000 foreign nationals who fled the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, the Russian foreign minister said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has insisted since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24 that Western sanctions against Moscow must be tightened and that they could not be negotiated.
Ukraine’s allies in the West have imposed sweeping sanctions on Moscow. About half of Russia’s gold and foreign exchange reserves have been frozen, hitting the Russian economy hard and pushing Moscow to the brink of bankruptcy.
Representatives of the two countries’ governments have not held direct peace talks since late March, and the climate has deteriorated following Ukraine’s allegations that the Russian military committed atrocities as it withdrew from areas near Kyiv. Moscow has denied the allegations.
Source: Capital
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