Sergei Lavrov: If the US and NATO change their position, the crisis in Ukraine will be resolved

Its Foreign Minister Russia, Sergei Lavrovblamed the West – the USA and NATO in particular – that there is an obstacle to reaching a political agreement on its termination conflict in Ukrainein an interview given to the Chinese agency Xinhua.

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.Lavrov said in an interview, which was published on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Among other things, he said, more than a million civilians have been evacuated from war-torn areas of Ukraine 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.

In another interview with Al-Arabiya television, Lavrov said that other countries’ arms shipments to Ukraine were a target of an attack by Russia. “Because these weapons are given to a regime that is waging war on its own citizens in the east of the country”he stressed.

The Russian Foreign Minister stressed that the “special operation” in Ukraine is a response to what NATO did in the country in recent years, preparing the Ukrainians to take an aggressive stance towards Russia. “They were supplied with offensive weapons, armament systems that have the potential to reach Russian territory. Military bases were set up, even in the Sea of ​​Azov. Dozens of military exercises were conducted, many of them on Ukrainian soil, with the help of NATO. The majority of these exercises were aimed at harming Russia’s interests. So the goal of this business is to make sure that these plans do not come to fruition. “he said.