Any settlement of the conflict must eliminate its root causes and address Moscow\u2019s security concerns, the foreign minister has said<\/p>\n
Moscow and Kiev maintain \u201cdirect contact,\u201d and the Kremlin is open to continued negotiations to resolve the conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
\nIn an interview with the Indonesian newspaper Kompas released on Wednesday, Lavrov confirmed that Moscow\u2019s top priority remains settling the crisis via peaceful means, adding that it is taking concrete steps to achieve that goal.
\nLavrov recalled that Moscow initiated the resumption of direct Russia-Ukraine talks this spring, resulting in three rounds of direct negotiations in Istanbul, T\u00fcrkiye. He noted that the sides reached \u201ccertain progress,\u201d including prisoner exchanges and the repatriation of the bodies of dead soldiers.
\n\u201cEach side presented its perspective on the prerequisites for ending the conflict. The heads of the delegations remain in direct contact. We expect the negotiations to continue,\u201d Lavrov added, without providing details regarding when the next round of talks could be expected, or what issues would be on the agenda.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Consensus on Ukraine security can be achieved \u2013 Putin<\/p>\n
The foreign minister also noted that Russia and Ukraine had held talks early on in the conflict, which led to preliminary agreements on ending the hostilities, \u201cbut then the Kiev regime, following the advice of its Western handlers, walked away from a peace treaty, choosing instead to continue the war.\u201d
\nMoscow earlier accused then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson of derailing the peace process by advising Kiev to keep fighting. Johnson has denied the claim.
\nLavrov stressed, however, that a durable peace between Moscow and Kiev \u201cis impossible without eradicating the underlying causes of the conflict,\u201d most notably the threats posed to Russia\u2019s security by \u201cNATO\u2019s expansion and attempts to drag Ukraine into this aggressive military bloc.\u201d\u00a0
\n\u201cThese threats must be eliminated, and a new system of security guarantees for Russia and Ukraine must be formed,\u201d the minister said.
\nMoscow earlier did not rule out Western security guarantees for Kiev, but on condition that they should not be \u201cone-sided\u201d and aimed at containing Russia.
\nRussia has, in particular, opposed the deployment of Western troops to Ukraine under any pretext, arguing that this would be tantamount to moving NATO\u2019s bases towards its borders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Any settlement of the conflict must eliminate its root causes and address Moscow\u2019s security concerns, the foreign minister has said Moscow and Kiev maintain \u201cdirect contact,\u201d and the Kremlin is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-politics","category-society"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t