„The Europeans and the Ukrainian regime are trying to convince US President Donald Trump to abandon peace efforts, return to confrontation with Russia and, in essence, turn the „Biden's war“ into „Trump's war“, noted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, quoted by BTA.
He added: „It is quite obvious that this worries many European leaders, including in Paris, Berlin, London and Brussels.“
According to him, Europe is even considering sending its contingents to Ukraine, which Moscow would consider a „legitimate military target“. Lavrov compared the European leaders' reasoning for creating a no-fly zone over Ukraine to the "torments of the heroes of Ilf and Petrov" - people who do not bear responsibility but like to present themselves as actors.
The Russian Foreign Minister emphasized that Moscow will insist on security guarantees based on the commitments in the UN Charter and in the OSCE documents from Istanbul (1999) and Astana (2010). They must correspond to the principle of indivisibility of security and the understanding that no country has the right to strengthen its security at the expense of another.
Lavrov stated that the authorities in Kiev have not observed the principle of equality and cannot represent the interests of Crimea, Donbass and Novorossiya. He recalled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's words before the war that people in Ukraine associated with Russian culture and language should "go to Russia".
“How can such a regime represent the population it is talking about, claiming that this is the territory of Ukraine? This is a gross violation of the 1970 Declaration and must be perceived as such,“ Lavrov said.
He added that the Russian language is legally banned in the fields of education, media, culture and even in everyday communication, giving examples of cases where shops refuse to provide service in Russian.
The minister also pointed out that Ukraine has adopted a law banning the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC-MP).
“The Russian language is the only banned foreign language in the world, and Ukraine is the only country that has banned a foreign language. There is no other language that is legally prohibited in any country. So draw your own conclusions about how this corresponds to the requirements of the UN Charter," Lavrov noted.