Post #28163

🎙Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's interview with Turkish media(Moscow, January 29, 2026) Key points: • Do we view the Ukrainian conflict as a broader confrontation between Russia and the West? The answer is yes. Ukraine is a pawn – a tool used by the West to build up a bulwark directly on Russia's borders in order to create direct threats to our security. • Ukraine’s Declaration of Independence clearly proclaimed a policy of non-alignment with military blocs, neutrality and renunciation of nuclear weapons. It was precisely on the basis of this policy, declared by the Ukrainian leadership after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, that Russia – as well as the majority of other world countries – recognized Ukraine. • The situation in Ukraine was a “battle” that had been prepared in advance. It was financed, including by the Americans. As the then US Deputy Secretary of State Nuland – the “architect” of Ukraine policy – recently admitted once again, already after leaving the State Department, they spent 5 billion US dollars on preparing Ukraine for a coup and turning it into an “anti-Russia”. • The Zelensky regime is, in many ways, a repetition of history – but not as a farce, because too many people have been killed for that, sacrificed by Zelensky and his “masters”, his Western patrons. • We have stated this repeatedly, and President Vladimir Putin has often recalled it: the ceasefire that Zelensky is once again seeking – for at least 60 days, preferably longer – is unacceptable to us. This is because all previous periods associated with diplomatic efforts during the special military operation ended the same way: any ceasefire was immediately used to pump Ukraine full of new weapons, to give this regime a breather, to once again round up as many people as possible on the streets of Ukrainian cities and shove them to the frontline as “cannon fodder”, and, overall, to gain time to regroup and continue the war against Russia. • Honest security guarantees were formulated in Istanbul in April 2022 following several rounds of negotiations, excellently organized by our Turkish friends. It was clearly spelled out what security guarantees meant – no foreign military bases on Ukrainian territory, no exercises involving foreign forces unless such exercises were approved by all guarantor states – everything was detailed and specific. In other words, everything was ready, but Boris Johnson said “no”. • We have not seen the document that Zelensky constantly refers to as a “20-point plan”. As we understand it, Ukrainians and Europeans have “reworked” it compared to the original US plan and are now trying to “sell” their own “vision” of this “peace” to the US administration. • We do not draw a distinction between the foreign policies of independent states that defend their national interests and the #MultipolarWorld. On the contrary, a multipolar world can only take shape if it is founded on the positions of precisely such self-respecting states – with their own national interests and with common sense underlying their actions – states that, while defending their own interests, respect the interests of others. Read in full