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Updated April 26th, 2022 at 20:59 IST

FM Lavrov asserts talks cannot continue if West keeps loading Ukraine with weapons

"We definitely appreciate your [UN's] desire to have another round of talks at this hard time," Lavrov told UN Secretary General Guterres at the press briefing.

Reported by: Zaini Majeed
UN
Image: AP | Image:self
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday dismissed Ukraine’s request for resuming negotiations in the besieged port city of Mariupol. Indicating that the dialogue has “stalled” and cannot be resumed over the latter’s request, Lavrov said, it is too early to talk about who would mediate negotiations and where it may be held. Although he added, that Moscow is committed to a diplomatic path forward. Ukraine "has become a catalyst" for "a great number of problems," said Russia's Foreign Minister Lavrov on April 26 as he met with UN chief Antonio Guterres.

Further, Lavrov stressed that there was "blatant sabotage of the Minsk agreements by Kyiv" and that "the UN Secretary did not intervene then." He had also warned that there is a “real” danger of World War III and that prospect of a nuclear war "is very significant." “The danger is serious, it is real, you can’t underestimate it,” he told the Interfax news agency, warning that the conflict inside Ukraine risks spilling to the countries outside. Lavrov also lambasted NATO for supplying weapons to Ukraine that he said may end up with the terrorists and fuel offensives in other nations. 

Just ahead of his claims at least two rockets had hit a military unit near the city of Tiraspol,  the breakaway Transnistria region and two Soviet-era radio antennas. The security council of Moldova declared the targetting of the EU's largest nuclear plant a "terrorist attack."  The Ukrainian defence ministry claimed that the shelling in Transnistria was a “planned provocation” by Russia.

"We definitely appreciate your desire to have another round of talks at this hard time," Lavrov told Guterres at the press briefing.

Lavrov accuses NATO of engaging in a proxy war; warns of WWIII

Russian foreign minister said that the meeting between Guterres and Russian President Vladimir Putin scheduled for later on the same day "emphasises the significance that we attach to our contacts with the United Nations." Lavrov accused the NATO defence Alliance of engaging in a proxy war and expressed scepticism that the EU pushed for the cessation of hostilities. He accused the framework of supplying Ukraine with heavy and advanced armed weaponry that he reiterated "risks spilling the conflict outside of Kyiv." Lavrov's meeting with the United Nations Secretary-General came at a crucial time when Washington hosted a Ukraine-focused defence talk at its Ramstein airbase in Germany to discuss the long term security plan of its ally. 

UN's Guterres emphasised that the UN is working to find ways to find a “peaceful solution” to the war in Ukraine "as quickly as possible." "We are extremely interested in finding ways to create the conditions for effective dialogue, create the conditions for a ceasefire as soon as possible, create the conditions for a peaceful solution," said the visiting UN chief. He added, "I know that we have different interpretations about what’s happening in Ukraine. That does not limit the possibility to have a very serious dialogue on how best we can work to minimise the suffering of people." UN chief's visit to Russia comes after Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, urged the UN secretary-general to negotiate an immediate cease-fire and help evacuate civilians holed up in a steelworks facility in the besieged city of Mariupol in an interview with AP. Although Ukraine has now expressed disappointment that Guterres did not visit Kyiv earlier and the UN could not do much to stop the war. 

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Published April 26th, 2022 at 20:59 IST

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