According to Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov, Russia is ready to continue cooperation with the United States on agreements that solve the root causes of the war in Ukraine. Lavrov said this in a balance interview for the TASS agency, which published its full text on Sunday. The Russian minister also declared that the European Union became the main obstacle to peace after the new administration in the USA. TASR informs about it.
TASS began publishing excerpts from the interview with the head of Russian diplomacy already on the eve of the planned meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump in Florida. The bilateral talks are to deal with the latest draft of the 20-point peace plan and security guarantees for Kyiv.
After the Russian attack on Kyiv and its surroundings on Saturday, which claimed two lives and cut off electricity supplies for hundreds of thousands of people, Zelensky said that the latest blow demonstrates Russian President Vladimir Putin’s lack of interest in peace. Moscow claimed it launched a “massive airstrike” on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in response to Ukrainian strikes on civilian targets in Russia.
“We see that Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s regime and its European guardians are not ready for constructive negotiations. This regime terrorizes civilians by targeting civilian infrastructure in our country with its acts of sabotage,” the Russian minister said in an interview in which he evaluated the past year.
According to Lavrov, Moscow appreciates the efforts of Trump and his team to achieve a peaceful settlement of the Russian-Ukrainian war. “We are committed to continuing to work with US negotiators to develop lasting agreements to address the root causes of the conflict,” stated.
Lavrov further warned that if European countries within the so-called coalition of the willing sent their troops to Ukraine, Russia would consider them a legitimate target. At the same time, however, he tried to dispel fears about a possible Russian attack on Europe. “I repeat again that there is no reason to fear that Russia will attack anyone,” declared Lavrov. At the same time, however, he warned that any attack on his country would cause a “crushing blow”.
