Russia will assess any proposal to end the war in Ukraine in terms of compliance with the objectives of the February 2022 invasion. On Monday, according to the TASS agency, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated this. It added at the same time that any deployment of Western forces in Ukraine would be considered foreign interference by Moscow. This is reported by TASR according to a Reuters report.
“The deployment of military units, military facilities, warehouses and other infrastructure from Western countries in Ukraine is for us unacceptable and will be classified as foreign intervention, which represents a direct threat to the security of Russia,” reads the statement of the department regarding the questions that the media asked the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergey Lavrov.
According to the Russian Ministry, Western countries that discussed the possibility of sending their soldiers to Ukraine to monitor a possible peace agreement should realize that “all foreign military contingents, including German, will become legitimate targets of the Russian armed forces if deployed in Ukraine.”
At the same time, he appreciates the statement of the department US President Donald Trump’s “peaceful effort” to end the war in Ukrainewhich Russia invaded militarily on February 24, 2022. According to Moscow, Trump understands the main reason for the conflict. The US delegation took part in trilateral negotiations with Ukrainian and Russian negotiators that took place the weekend before last in Abu Dhabi. The next round is scheduled for this Wednesday and Thursday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reported on Monday that the negotiating parties managed to make progress on some issues. According to him, however, there has not yet been a rapprochement of positions on more complex topics. The issue of the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas remains a key point of contentionwhich Russia claims in its entirety, even though it controls just over 80 percent of its territory.
“We emphasize that all proposals must be assessed in terms of their acceptability to Russia and compliance with the goals and objectives of the special military operation,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said, referring to the term used by the Kremlin to describe the invasion of Ukraine.
