Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s answer to a question from The International Affairs magazine on initiatives concerning Ukrainian peace settlement, August 4, 2023

Question: As you have repeatedly said, there is a growing number of different initiatives on settling the situation in Ukraine. At the same time, the proposals coming from the Western countries are exclusively aimed at one-sidedly promoting Zelensky’s peace formula without considering the reality on the ground and Russia’s interests. In your opinion, what issues may arise in this context?

Sergey Lavrov: In view of the multiple initiatives concerning the settlement in Ukraine, we can confirm that we value any efforts on achieving a just and reliable peace. It is clear that justice cannot be achieved in any conflict without ensuring full respect for the rights of ethnic minorities by all parties. There is no alternative, especially for Ukraine, where Russian has always been the native language for the majority of the population. The West is doing everything it can to impose the Zelensky formula on the Global South and demanding that the 1991 borders be restored. But nobody in Washington, London, Paris or Brussels has said a word about their own attitude to the repeatedly and loudly declared position of the Kiev regime: “We will take Crimea, Donbass and all our other territories” and “we’ll destroy everything Russian there.”

The importance of averting these neo-Nazi threats is obvious. However, the multiplying initiatives on Ukraine usually bypass this issue. But violations of the rights of the Russian-speaking population continue unabated. In July, the Kiev city administration prohibited using the Russian language in the public cultural environment (a ban on songs, plays, films and other cultural events). Did anybody rebuke the Kiev regime?

Instead, Zelensky received more invitations to take an international tour. Why don’t his Western booking agents ask him to publicly present to the global community another formula describing the status of Russians and other ethnic minorities in their country as seen by the Kiev regime after Ukraine’s victory for which NATO and the EU spare no expense? I am certain that it would help many countries of the Global South that want to understand the current developments better as they shape their own stance. During the numerous discussions and talks at the second Russia-Africa Summit in St Petersburg, we became convinced that they are interested in gaining a comprehensive understanding of the nature of this crisis and prospects of overcoming it.

The Anglo-Saxons and their allies stood up to support the Nazis in Kiev while ignoring and sometimes justifying their actions that violate human rights and the rights of ethnic minorities. Instead of having a serious conversation and recognising the evolving reality on the ground over the past ten years, they convene carefully choreographed forums for the sole purpose of luring as many countries as possible into acting out a discussion of the Zelensky formula – a formula that requires no less than Russia’s full surrender and agreeing to impinge upon its own security, abandoning millions of Russians whose ancestors lived on those territories for centuries, building cities, roads and ports to their fate. All those who ingratiate themselves with the West to push the Zelensky formula must realise that what is at stake is the fate of people threatened with extermination by the Kiev regime.