Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov questioned the “innocence” of Ukraine’s desire to join the European Union, which he described as an “aggressive military player”, TASS quoted him as saying.
(They (Ukraine) are trying in every way to emphasize their desire to become members of the European Union.) (Ukraine’s Foreign Minister) -importantly, this is a problem in relations between Kyiv and the European Union, but the innocence of such a desire of Kyiv raises serious doubts because it must be borne in mind that the EU has evolved from a constructive and economic platform, as it was created, in an aggressive militant player, “Lavrov told a news conference after a meeting of CIS foreign ministers in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe.
According to the Russian Foreign Minister, the European Union is striving to follow in NATO’s footsteps, “thus confirming the trend that they are merging with the North Atlantic Alliance and will serve as its appendage.”
At the same time, Lavrov noted that Ukraine, despite public statements by the country’s leadership that the renunciation of nuclear weapons is a mistake, noted in its contracts with the Russian Federation its readiness to acquire non-aligned and neutral status if it receives guarantees outside NATO and other military-political blocs.
Indeed, Ukrainian colleagues have publicly said they are ready to acquire non-aligned status, and non-nuclear status, even though President (Volodymyr) Zelensky mentioned at the Munich conference in January that it was a mistake to give up nuclear weapons. “Now they are ready to declare a neutral, non-aligned status when they receive guarantees outside NATO and other military-political blocs,” he said.
At the talks in Istanbul on March 29, which are practically the last talks between Russia and Ukraine in a face-to-face format, Ukraine agreed to these conditions – Ukraine to become a non-aligned, non-nuclear state, but must receive security guarantees from countries such as the United States, Britain, Germany, Turkey and of course Russia.
Then the head of the Russian delegation Vladimir Medinsky presented the proposals of the Ukrainian side on the system of security guarantees and clarified that they do not apply to the territory of Crimea and Donbas. “To apply the status of a non-nuclear state, the following is a list of guarantor states that guarantee Ukraine’s security. Security guarantees do not apply to the territory of Crimea and Sevastopol, ie Ukraine renounces its desire to return Crimea and Sevastopol. with military force and states that this is possible only through negotiations. Of course, this is in no way in line with our position, but Ukraine has formulated its approach.
But then many things happened (the discovery of hundreds of civilians killed in cities near Kyiv, the siege of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol), and the situation on the front changed significantly, and now it seems that both sides are looking for a military solution and are reluctant of resumption of negotiations on the merits.
