LAST UPDATE: 17.29
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Ukraine had presented a new plan for an agreement with Russia on Wednesday, Interfax reported, citing Reuters. He said the Ukrainian plan differed from the proposals presented in Istanbul.
The Russian Foreign Minister also said that Ukraine’s proposals to discuss Crimea and Donbass in a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky are unacceptable.
Lavrov stressed that Ukraine’s intention to set new conditions in the negotiations is unacceptable. “In the next stage, the Ukrainian side will most likely demand the withdrawal of troops and set more and more prerequisites. This plan is understandable, but it is unacceptable,” he said.
Ukraine had previously promised that security guarantees would not apply to Crimea, but the new proposal lacks this clause and instead uses vague wording, Lavrov said, according to Russia’s Ria Novosti news agency.
“I remind you that in that Istanbul document, the Ukrainians made it clear that Ukraine’s future security guarantees would not apply to Crimea and Sevastopol. In the new proposal, however, this clear statement is absent,” he said.
Ukraine has changed the provision on military exercises in the draft agreement with Russia without mentioning the need to obtain Moscow’s consent, Lavrov said.
The Russian Foreign Minister noted that the Istanbul document handed over by Ukraine at the end of March explicitly stated that under the neutral and non-nuclear regime of Ukraine, any military exercises with the participation of foreign units would be carried out only with the consent of all of Russia.
“However, in the new proposal, this clear provision has also been replaced – we are now talking about the possibility of conducting exercises with the consent of most of the guarantor countries without any reference to Russia,” Lavrov said.
Lavrov added that Russia would continue talks with Ukraine, promoting its own draft agreement.
In addition, Lavrov accused the United States of pressuring Zelensky to continue the conflict.
Ukraine’s response
In a written statement to Reuters, Ukrainian negotiator Mikhail Pontoliak dismissed the Russian foreign minister’s comments, saying Lavrov was not directly involved in the talks and that his statements were “purely propagandistic”.
Pontoliak said Moscow wanted to divert attention from the events in the city of Butsa, where Ukraine accuses Russian troops of killing civilians, adding: “This is how we should look at any such statements,” he said.
Source: Capital
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