Speaking at a press conference after talks with his South African colleague Naledi Pandor, Lavrov noted that the West is preventing Kyiv from negotiating with Moscow. The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, the NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, representatives of the United States or the European Union often say that it is too early to reach an agreement.
“We need to recover more in this situation and start negotiations from a position of strength. They clearly say that we need to return Russia to the 1991 borders,” Lavrov said.
At the same time, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that Moscow does not refuse to negotiate, but the longer the United States and its allies avoid a peaceful settlement, the more difficult it will be to find a solution to the conflict.
Also at the briefing, Lavrov said that the war between the West and Russia has ceased to be hybrid. According to him, this is an “almost real” war.
Remember that Crimea became part of Russia after a referendum in 2014, the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions – in 2022.
