Russian Foreign Minister Serguéi Lavrov has overturned on Tuesday a jug of cold water on expectations around peace negotiations in Ukraine and. On the one hand, in front of the rush of the United States to close the summit in August, Lavrov has emphasized that preparing a “between heads of state” meeting must be planned with great care. On the other, it has discarded a possible peace in exchange for territory: “The Russian Federation never had the objective of seizing Crimea, Donbás or Novalossiya [concepto histórico-administrativo ruso de las regiones orientales y meridionales de Ucrania en el imperio ruso]his main task was to protect the Russian people, ”he said in an interview granted to the Rossiya channel 1. However, he pointed out that“ territorial changes are often essential components of conflict resolution ”.
Moscow tries not to lose Trump’s favor without openly closing any door. “Russia does not reject any negotiation format on Ukraine, neither bilateral nor trilateral,” added the Foreign Manager. Putin has suggested that Moscow could be the scene of a future meeting with Zelenski, as reported by the British newspaper The Guardian, citing the AFP agency, which, in turn, cites two sources close to the call among the leaders of the US and Russia. One of the sources said that “Putin mentioned Moscow” as a possible headquarters, adding that Zelenski said “no.”
In Washington, a high position of the administration confirmed to Reuters that Budapest is one of the possible venues that are studied for bilateral between the two enemies, if it is celebrated. According to the high position, which spoke under the condition of anonymity, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, spoke on Monday with Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, with whom he addressed the negotiations for the possible income of Ukraine into the European Union. Both leaders also dealt with the possibility that the capital of the Central European country welcomed the summit between Putin and Zelenski. It is a possibility that would be uncomfortable for Ukraine, given Orbán’s affinity with the Russian. The White House had already studied the possibility that Budapest could receive the meeting between the Russian leader and Trump last week, although finally Washington and Moscow decided that this meeting took place in Anchorage, in Alaska, Macarena Vidal Liy reports.
Lavrov has taken advantage of the interview to qualify the environment of conversations between Putin and the president of the United States, Donald Trump, as “very good”, for adopting a “much deeper approach to resolve this crisis.” The Russian Foreign Manager has reiterated that this approach must go through “” of the conflict, euphemism with which the Russian authorities usually include the approach of NATO and the European Union to the former Soviet Republic.
“One of these deep causes is Russia’s security problem. The commitments we assume to avoid the expansion of NATO to the east have been systematically breached for decades,” Lavrov insisted. The Russian Foreign Minister has taken the opportunity to criticize the role of “the Europeans”, who, in his opinion, “shouted in each corner that there should be a stop the fire, after which they would continue to supply weapons to Ukraine.” Zelenski offered Trump at the White House meeting to buy American weapons for the value that Europeans would assume as part of the security guarantees with which kyiv expects to count.
The European Union has insisted on its willingness to participate in negotiations between Moscow, kyiv and Washington. On Monday, after the visit of Zelenski and seven European leaders to the White House, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, proposed that the next meeting not be trilateral, but “four -opening”, with the presence of Europe. In an interview with the French chain LCI, the president suggested that the meeting take place in “a neutral country”, such as Switzerland. Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis replied that his country “is prepared” for the meeting and that he would offer “immunity” to Putin, on whom he weighs an arrest warrant of the International Criminal Court.
On Zelenski’s refusal to negotiate before the constitutional prohibition of giving territories to Russia, Lavrov has indicated that “ironically” the Ukraine Constitution “still retains the guarantee of fully guaranteeing the rights of Russians and other national minorities, despite the approved laws that prohibit the Russian language.” “If your Constitution cares so much, then it would begin by its first articles, where this guarantee is established,” said Lavrov, while referring to the respect of “the full rights of Russians in Ukraine” is necessary to “talk about long -term agreements.”
“It is no novelty that all this has been hidden by several figures such as Ursula von der Leyen, Emmanuel Macron, Keir Starmer, Friedrich Merz and Olaf Scholz before him .. They were the leaders who ignored and misrepresented all the facts that underlie the deep causes of the Ukraine crisis,” he said. The Kremlin has assumed Trump’s criticisms as his own to his Democratic predecessor. At Alaska’s meeting, Putin said before the cameras that if Trump had been president in 2022, the offensive would not have occurred.
“The president [Putin] He has reiterated it numerous occasions. The key is that these formats are not sought to obtain media coverage or for television broadcasts at night, ”added Lavrov. The Republican announced on Monday that it is accelerating preparations for a meeting between the presidents of Russia and Ukraine, which would follow a meeting with the presence of Trump.
“At the end of the meeting I called President Putin and started the preparations for a meeting, in a place to be determined, between Putin and Zelenski. After that meeting, we will have a trilateral between the two presidents and myself,” Trump said Monday in his social network, Truth. For his part, the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has anticipated in an interview in Fox News that both parties will have to “make concessions” to reach the end of the war. “It is not easy, and maybe it is not even fair, but it is what is needed to end a war. And that has been so in all wars,” he said.
On the other hand, the Russian Foreign Ministry recalled Monday that its country opposes frontally to the deployment of any type of western troops in Ukraine.
