Russia would not like to see "shuttle diplomacy" with the participation of Western representatives in negotiations with Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Serbian media on Monday.
"I would not like to see any shuttle diplomacy from our Western colleagues, because they already did their part in February 2014 in Ukraine and in February 2015 in Minsk," he said.
"Now they're telling us, 'Give diplomacy a chance.' Of course, we want to give diplomacy a chance, which is why we agreed to the negotiations that are now resuming in Istanbul. But there are many examples where diplomatic achievements have been destroyed by our Western colleagues. We cannot trust them now," the minister stressed.
Lavrov recalled how in February 2014 the EU acted as a guarantor of the agreement between the Ukrainian president and the opposition, which was the pinnacle of diplomacy.
"In the morning, the opposition turned on this diplomacy, and the EU had to swallow the situation. Then diplomacy reached new heights, as it did in February 2015 in Minsk. Agreements were signed that ended the war in eastern Ukraine and opened the way to the restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity by granting a special status to Donbass," the foreign minister said. - "And the EU has completely proved its inconsistency as an organization that is capable of carrying out what it negotiates".
Inadmissibility of revival of neo-Nazism
Lavrov also expressed hope that Europe will now shake itself up and realize the unacceptability of reviving the ideology and practices of Nazism, as well as the Nazification of Ukraine, which poses a direct threat to Russia.
As the head of the foreign ministry noted, neo-Nazism had been reviving in Europe long before the current events in Ukraine. In particular, he recalled, every March there are marches of Waffen SS battalions in Latvia, and "the government supports these marches, while in Ukraine and Poland monuments to those who defeated fascism are torn down".
"I really hope that now the European consciousness will shake up, because in Ukraine these tendencies to revive the ideology and practice of Nazism are particularly evident," said the head of the diplomatic mission.
According to him, in Ukraine they were not limited to torchlight marches. "Neo-Nazi militant groups were deliberately created there," Lavrov continued. - "There is documentary evidence of this - both photo and video materials. These neo-Nazi soldiers infiltrated the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to take commanding heights there. This is also well known".
The head of the diplomatic mission expressed confidence that Europe and the whole world should think about the inadmissibility of Nazification of Ukraine, which is a "direct threat to Russia" due to its direct neighbourhood.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS