Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today that negotiations to end the fighting in Ukraine could only be successful if they take Moscow's interests into account and rejected the planned round of peace talks as a Western deception to secure wider international support for Kiev.
After a meeting with about 70 foreign ambassadors in Moscow, Lavrov told reporters that Western allies of Ukraine are involved in a broad diplomatic initiative to persuade as many countries as possible from the "global south" to come to a meeting in Switzerland to discuss a potential peace plan.
Lavrov said that the West is trying to increase the number of countries participating in the planned round of negotiations in Switzerland by claiming that their representatives will only be able to discuss certain aspects of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's peace plan, such as ways to ensure global food security.
Lavrov described such arguments as a "Western ploy" aimed at attracting more undecided countries of the "Global South" so that the conference would have up to 140 participants and be portrayed as a demonstration of broad support for Ukraine.
He stated that any peace talks would be a "useless waste of time" if they did not take Moscow's interests into account.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that he sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022 to protect Russian interests and prevent the country from becoming a major security threat to Russia by joining NATO. Kiev and its allies condemned Russia's military operation as an unprovoked act of aggression.
Lavrov repeated that Moscow rejects Zelensky's peace plan, which envisages Russia withdrawing its army from Ukraine, paying it compensation and facing trial before an international tribunal for aggression.
He said that any peace agreement must respect Russia's security interests and recognize the "new reality", by which he alluded to Russia's territorial gains in the war against Ukraine.
"We defend our truth, the interests of our people in the territories founded by their ancestors who lived there for centuries. If they are willing to talk on the basis of justice, on the balance of reality and security interests, we are ready for it at any time," he said. Lavrov.
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