The Lavrov-Trash meeting on Ukraine and the hasty departure of the Russian Foreign Minister

The atmosphere was electrified at Yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with his British counterpart Liz Tras. The eyes are cold between the two ministers, with Lavrov accusing Tras of refusing to listen. In fact, at the end of the joint statements, the Russian Foreign Minister left in a hurry, leaving the British minister behind.

The episodic meeting highlighted the gap between the two countries over the Ukrainian crisis.

In the joint press conference given by the two ministers, Lavrov said that in his meeting with Liz Trass he felt as if he was in a deaf-mute conversation.

“They say that Russia is waiting for the ground to freeze, like a stone, so that its chariots can easily pass through Ukrainian territory. “I think that was the ground today with our British colleagues,” he said.

Trash directly challenged his assurance Lavrov that Russia does not threaten anyone with the concentration of troops and weapons near the Ukrainian border. “I see no reason why 100,000 troops should be stationed at the border, other than to threaten Ukraine. “And if Russia is serious about diplomacy, it must withdraw those forces and stop the threats.”

Lavrov lamented the fact that they are asking Russia to withdraw troops from its own territory.

Liz Tras is said to have confused Russian territory with parts of Ukraine

The Russian newspaper Kommersant, citing two diplomatic sources, wrote that during a closed-door meeting between the two ministers, Lavrov asked Tras if he recognized Russian sovereignty over Rostov and Voronezh – the two southern regions. Russia where Russian forces are concentrated. Trash, always according to the article, replied that Britain would never recognize them as Russian and then the British ambassador intervened to correct it.

Later, in an interview with the Russian newspaper RBC, Trash said she thought Lavrov was referring to parts of Ukraine.

“No one is undermining Russia’s security, this is simply not true,” she said, adding that it was “absolutely right” for Ukraine to defend and seek allies.

Russia’s relations with Britain have been bad for years, according to Reuters and the Athenian News Agency. They reached their lowest point with the poisoning and death of Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 and the assassination attempt on former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury in 2018.

Lavrov claimed that London had never presented evidence to support his allegations of Russian involvement in either case, or that Moscow had attempted to poison dissident Alexei Navalny in 2020. He said Trash had not changed his tone during the two-hour meeting. and that he ignored his explanations, while repeating statements and demands that Britain has made in the past.

Source: News Beast

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