Russian Foreign Ministry states it will be more difficult for Ukraine to negotiate with Kremlin

KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO – SATURDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER 2022, 23:03

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, said that Russia would not take the first steps in a dialogue with the West and that the longer Kyiv refuses to negotiate, the harder it will be to do so.

Source: Lavrov in a speech at the 77th session of the UN General Assembly on Saturday, RIA Novosti 

Quote: "We do not refuse contacts [with the West – ed.], and when relevant offers come, we agree. Our partners want to meet quietly so that no one finds out about it, please. But in the situation which we are in, Russia will not take any first steps."

Details: Lavrov also stated that Russia is not refusing to negotiate with Ukraine, "but those who refuse should understand that the longer they refuse, the more difficult it will be to negotiate in the end."

He also complained that the West had "thrown a tantrum" because of the so-called "referendums" in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine; the minister even recalled the words of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"But the people who live there are basically just reacting to what President Zelenskyy recommended to them in one of his interviews in August 2021. Then, he advised everyone who feels they are Russian, for the sake of their children and grandchildren, to go to Russia. This is what the residents of the mentioned regions are doing now, taking with them their lands, on which their ancestors lived for centuries," he said.

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