Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday decided to expand on comments he made the day before, calling the government in Ukraine "neo-Nazi" and "Russophobic," violating human rights, and Vladimir Zelensky an illegitimate leader.
He also reported that the condemned security guarantees for Ukraine are an attempt by Europe to "preserve the current regime." At the same time, the discussion of security guarantees for Ukraine was called "schemes" related to "foreign military intervention on some part of Ukrainian territory" by the Russian Foreign Minister.
Lavrov recalled the proposals put forward in Istanbul in April 2022, considering these theses relevant today. In particular, in the draft agreement, Russia was among the security guarantors for Ukraine, having the right to veto the actions of other guarantors. "Anything else, everything unilateral, is, of course, absolutely futile endeavors," Lavrov stated.
Commenting on the possibility of a meeting between Putin and Zelensky, whom the Foreign Minister called the "so-called leader," Lavrov reminded that the Ukrainian president "has not yet canceled his decree, which explicitly prohibits negotiations with Putin." This refers to the decree from 2022, which Putin has repeatedly cited as a reason why he is not ready to meet with Zelensky.
According to Lavrov, this is why "Zelensky's activity regarding organizing a summit aims to "replace serious work on agreeing on principles for a sustainable crisis resolution with effects in the style of KVN."
Lavrov clarified that Putin is ready to meet with Zelensky only when "all issues... are well worked out and experts, ministers prepare the appropriate recommendations." Another condition of the Russian president, according to Lavrov, is that at the moment of signing the documents, the "issue of the legitimacy of the person who will sign these agreements from the Ukrainian side" must be resolved.