The head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, accused Western countries on Monday of convincing kyiv not to seek to negotiate a solution to the war in Ukraine with Moscow.
Lavrov thus repeated, during a visit to South Africa, a recent comment by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who accused Western countries of hindering peace negotiations, while Russia repeatedly rejects Ukrainian and Western demands, as a condition for any negotiations, to withdraw all its armed forces. Ukrainian forces, which they invaded in February 2022.
“It is known that we support the proposal of the Ukrainian side to negotiate, at the beginning of the special military operation, and, at the end of March, the two delegations agreed on the principle of resolving this conflict,” Lavrov alleged, referring to the initial contacts between the delegations of the two countries, which produced no results.
“It is known, and it has been publicly revealed, that our American, British and some European colleagues have told Ukraine that it is too early to negotiate,” the Russian foreign minister said.
US President Joe Biden announced that he would be willing to talk to Putin if the Russian leader showed that he was serious about ending the invasion.
Lavrov is in Pretoria for talks with his South African counterpart, Naledi Pandor, as Russia tries to strengthen ties between the two countries.
South Africa has been seen as the foremost of several African nations to take a neutral position in the war and refuse to condemn Russia’s invasion.
Lavrov met Pandor in the South African capital and plans to visit other African countries on this, his second trip to Africa in the space of six months.
“We are fully aware that a conflict, anywhere in the world, has a negative impact on all of us. (…) For this reason, South Africa will always be willing to support conflict resolution everywhere,” said the head of state. South African diplomacy.
South Africa continues to have strong ties with Russia, dating back to the Soviet Union’s support for the country’s current ruling party, the African National Congress, when it was just a liberation movement fighting to end the repressive Apartheid system. ‘ against South Africa’s black majority.
This relationship helps to understand what led South Africa to abstain from a United Nations vote last year that condemned Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
The military offensive launched on February 24, 2022 by Russia in Ukraine has so far caused the flight of more than 14 million people -6.5 million internally displaced persons and almost eight million to European countries-, according to the latest data from the UN, which classifies this refugee crisis as the worst in Europe since World War II (1939-1945).
The Russian invasion – justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin as the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security – was condemned by the wider international community, which has responded by sending arms to Ukraine and imposing them on Russia in political and economic sanctions.
Source: TSF
