Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that they will not accept Europe's request for a ceasefire in Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov attended the joint meeting of the secretaries of the foreign affairs, defense, and security councils of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) held in Moscow. After the meeting, Lavrov held a press conference with CSTO Secretary General Taalatbek Masadikov. Lavrov reminded that trilateral negotiations between Russia, the USA, and Ukraine started today in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and stated that issues related to the establishment of a future regional security system were discussed at the negotiations initiated by the USA.
Noting that European countries demanded a ceasefire in Ukraine, Lavrov said, “This is an old logic. This is done to buy time for Ukraine and to compensate for losses. We will not accept this.”
Lavrov stated that European representatives went to Abu Dhabi for negotiations, saying, “The Americans informed that they would meet with Ukrainians and Europeans before starting negotiations with our delegation. I do not think this is an efficient working method. We cannot and do not want to prevent Americans from meeting with whoever they think will contribute to the negotiations. Europe plans to deploy military units to Ukraine after the ceasefire is achieved. Some European Union (EU) countries have started exercises in Poland. The Kiev administration absolutely refuses to implement the collective security agreements signed since 2014. The conflicts in Ukraine started for this reason,” he said.
