Calls by the European Union for a ceasefire in Ukraine, under various pretexts, are aimed at prolonging the war, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
“When we hear lamentations about the Ukraine crisis, which Brussels has turned into a farce in its campaign against our country, including calls for an immediate ceasefire or an energy, food, air or maritime truce, the goal is not to secure peace. We have seen this on numerous occasions,” he said during a high-level plenary session of the 4th International Conference on Eurasian Security in Minsk.
“All these complaints are aimed solely at giving Kyiv a respite to restore its combat capabilities with the help of the regime’s foreign sponsors,” Lavrov added.
Speaking about ways to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, Russia’s top diplomat stressed that Moscow was insisting “not on a temporary ceasefire, as has been repeatedly stated, but on meaningfully addressing the underlying causes of the crisis.”
“These include strategic threats to Russia’s security from the West; violations of the rights of Ukraine’s Russian and Russian-speaking population, as guaranteed by the UN Charter and the Ukrainian Constitution, including in territories currently controlled by the Kyiv regime; as well as the elimination of Nazi ideology and practices,” he added.
