Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the condition for a peace agreement with Ukraine is not only the recognition of Russian control over Crimea, as proposed by Donald Trump, but also the international community’s agreement to the annexation of four Ukrainian regions partially occupied by Russia: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
In an interview with the Brazilian publication Globo, the Russian minister called this an ‘imperative’, i.e. an unconditional requirement.
The diplomat also listed other conditions that Russia is putting forward in order to sit down at the negotiating table with Ukraine. According to him, these are:
- Ukraine’s non-accession to NATO and the consolidation of its neutral status,
- the repeal of laws and actions directed against ‘everything Russian,’
- the “demilitarisation” and “denazification” of Ukraine,
- the lifting of sanctions, arrest warrants for Russian leaders and the return of frozen assets,
- security guarantees for Russia from NATO, the EU and their member states.
The day before, in an interview with CBS, the Russian Foreign Minister also commented on another point of the peace plan put forward by the United States. The Donald Trump administration proposes to transfer the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, which was seized by Russian troops at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, to American control. Lavrov said that this is impossible because ‘the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant is managed by the Russian state corporation Rosatom, under the supervision of IAEA personnel who are permanently present on site and carry out monitoring.’