Kyiv’s new peace proposal a step back from previous stance, Moscow claims.
QUICK FACTS:
- Ukraine’s new proposals for resolving the ongoing military conflict with Russia differ from what it submitted during the latest round of in-person talks last week in Istanbul, Turkey, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday, RT News reports.
- The veteran official characterized Ukraine as apparently wanting to stall for time and continue hostilities, adding that he believes the US may have a hand in the changed proposals, which were sent on Wednesday.
- Lavrov said the deviations from Kyiv’s previous draft exposed Kyiv’s “true intentions” of undermining the peace process and exemplify Ukraine’s inability to adhere to agreements, serving as evidence “that the Kyiv regime is controlled by Washington and its allies, who push President Zelenskyy to continue hostilities.”
UKRAINE’S NEW PROPOSALS MISSING INFO ABOUT CRIMEA:
- The new proposal reportedly fails to mention that the security guarantees Kyiv wants to obtain from leading world powers do not cover Crimea, according to RT.
- Russia has regarded Crimea as part of its territory since 2014, when the former Ukrainian region voted to break away in response to the Western-backed Maidan protests in Kyiv, although most of the world still recognizes the peninsula as part of Ukraine.
- The new document proposed by Ukraine does not explicitly exclude Crimea from its security agreement, but has “vague wording about an effective control,” Lavrov said.
- Kyiv does want to discuss the issue during a future bilateral meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he added.
- Lavrov stressed that the status of Crimea was not up for discussion.
BACKGROUND:
- Lavrov emphasized that Russia would continue its efforts to negotiate peace with the Ukrainian government despite what he referred to as a provocative move by Kyiv.
- Russia has now demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc, RT notes.
