Moscow to Kyiv: Meet Russia’s demands or we’ll impose them

Comment by foreign minister came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was open to negotiations

Russia’s foreign minister accused Ukraine and the West of seeking to destroy his country and said Kyiv must accept Moscow’s demands for ending the war or else watch as the Russian armed forces achieve them on the battlefield. Sergei Lavrov’s comments, made early Tuesday amid continued heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine, came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was open to negotiations, but only on Moscow’s terms. These include Ukraine recognising Russia’s conquest of a fifth of its territory. 

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Kyiv, armed and supported by the United States and its NATO allies, says it will recover all its occupied territory and drive out all Russian soldiers. “Our proposals for the demilitarization and denazification of the territories controlled by the regime, the elimination of threats to Russia’s security emanating from there, including our new lands, are well known to the enemy,” state news agency TASS quoted Lavrov as saying. “The point is simple: Fulfil them for your own good. Otherwise, the issue will be decided by the Russian army.”

Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, calling it a “special operation” to “denazify” and demilitarise Ukraine, which he cast as a pawn of the West that threatened Russia.

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