Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today that his government does not want to see representatives of Western countries as mediators in negotiations with Ukraine.
Speaking to the Serbian media, the high-ranking official referred to short-term demands on Moscow to give “diplomacy a chance” after the start of the special military operation in the neighboring country.
“Of course we want to give diplomacy a chance, that’s why we agreed to the negotiations, which will now resume in Istanbul. But there are many examples where the achievements of diplomacy have been destroyed by our Western colleagues. You can’t trust them now,” he said.
The Foreign Minister recalled how in February 2014 the European Union (EU) acted as a guarantor of an agreement between the President of Ukraine and the opposition, which was trampled on the next morning, while the common bloc said nothing about it.
He also referred to the unfulfilled Minsk accords of February 2015, which ended the war in eastern Ukraine and opened an alternative way of restoring the country’s territorial integrity by granting special status to the rebellious Donbass region.
The EU has shown its inability as an organization to fulfill the agreements, Lavrov stressed.
Regarding the impact of more than 6,300 sanctions against Russia, the minister stressed that Moscow cooperates with a large number of countries around the world and is not isolated.
“Only those who have mentally and ideologically come to terms with the inevitability of Western dictatorship on the world stage speak of isolation,” he emphasized.
He said Russia has a large number of partners in Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Africa, and good relations with most organizations established by developing countries.
Among these he named the African Union, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
He also warned that Washington and its allies are putting pressure on other countries when they vote at the United Nations (UN) for fear of remaining isolated. “We know what shameless blackmail is being developed to subjugate different countries, what threats are being heard,” he said.