(Reuters) – Russia will not pause its military operation in Ukraine for subsequent rounds of peace talks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov mentioned on Monday.
Russian officers say peace talks with Ukraine are not progressing as quickly as they want, and have accused the West of making an attempt to derail negotiations by elevating warfare crimes allegations towards Russian troops in Ukraine, which Moscow denies.
Speaking in an interview with Russian state tv, Lavrov mentioned he noticed no motive not to proceed talks with Ukraine however insisted Moscow would not halt its military operation when the edges convene once more.
Lavrov mentioned that President Vladimir Putin had ordered to droop military motion through the first spherical of talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in late February however that Moscow’s place had modified since.
“After we turned satisfied that the Ukrainians had been not planning to reciprocate, a choice was made that through the subsequent rounds of talks, there can be no pause (in military motion) as long as a last settlement is not reached,” Lavrov mentioned.
Russia despatched tens of hundreds of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 in what it known as a particular operation to degrade its southern neighbour’s military capabilities and root out folks it known as harmful nationalists.
Ukrainian forces have mounted stiff resistance and the West has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia in an effort to power it to withdraw its forces.
Lavrov final week accused Kyiv of presenting Moscow with an “unacceptable” draft peace deal that deviated from agreements the edges had beforehand reached. Kyiv dismissed Lavrov’s feedback on the time as a tactic to undermine Ukraine or divert consideration from warfare crime accusations towards Russian troops.
In the interview aired on Monday, Lavrov additionally mentioned that calls by Josep Borrell, the European Union’s high diplomat, for the bloc to proceed arming Kyiv marked a “very severe U-turn” in European coverage.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
