Lavrov calls eliminating the causes of the conflict in Ukraine a way to end it

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that only the elimination of the root causes of the Ukrainian conflict can lead to its end. He said this on February 10 at a solemn meeting dedicated to the Day of Diplomatic Worker.

"This is primarily the creation of threats to Russia's security through the expansion of NATO to the East and the course of the Kiev regime, which came to power as a result of an anti-constitutional coup d'état, to exterminate everything Russian - language, culture, media and canonical Orthodoxy," Gazeta.ru quoted Lavrov as saying.

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Earlier in the day, the deputy head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Mikhail Galuzin, said that the 2022 documents on the country's non-aligned nuclear-free status could become the basis for possible negotiations on Ukraine. The document also includes provisions on the country's demilitarization and denazification, as well as a ban on the deployment of foreign troops and bases on Ukrainian territory.

The Russian president has repeatedly reminded that Russia has never refused from peace talks, but they should be conducted on the basis of the provisions agreed in Istanbul and not on the basis of "ephemeral demands". Also on January 28, Putin specified that "anyone" can negotiate with Russia from Ukraine's side, but legitimate people should sign documents on the results of the decisions.

On June 14 last year, the Russian leader named the conditions for a dialog on the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine, adding that Russia has always sought peace and is ready to sit down at the negotiating table even tomorrow. Thus, Putin said that Ukrainian troops should be withdrawn from all territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions.

The last round of negotiations took place in Istanbul on March 29, 2022. They lasted about three hours. Later, Kiev officially refused contacts with Moscow. On October 4 of the same year, the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine on the impossibility of holding talks with Putin was put into effect.