Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov assured that Moscow is not seeking a regime change in Ukraine but that the war unleashed with its invasion wants to “guarantee the security of the population of the east”, in an interview on Italian television broadcast on Sunday. (01.05.2022).
“We do not want (Ukrainian President Volodímir Zelenski) to surrender, but rather to order an end to hostilities. Our objective is not regime change in Ukraine, that is the specialty of the United States,” he said on the Italian channel Rete4, in his first interview to a European media since the Russian invasion, on February 24.
And he added, responding in Russian and translated into Italian: “We want to guarantee the safety of the population of the east (Donbas), threatened by the militarization and Nazification of this country, and that no threats reach the Russian Federation from Ukraine.”
Denies Russian authorship in massacre of civilians
The minister, asked about the issue, again denied Russian responsibility for the massacres in cities like Bucha, stressing that his soldiers left the city on March 30, despite testimonies to the contrary and images broadcast by the press, which criticized continuously.
“I do not want to delve into this aspect because it is so obvious that it is false, that any observer can understand it at first glance,” he assured.
Lavrov insisted on the infiltration of supposedly neo-Nazi sectors in Ukrainian institutions and, being warned about Zelensky’s Jewish origins, replied that Adolf Hitler “also had Hebrew origins”.
On the other hand, he did not answer whether this week’s attack against kyiv was a provocation on the day that the United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres, was in the city, nor did he clarify the state of health of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Ask the foreign leaders who have met with him,” interrupted the head of Russian diplomacy.
Recognizes effects of sanctions
On the other hand, he defended Putin’s decision that the supply of gas to “hostile” countries be paid in rubles because their reserves in dollars and euros earned from gas imports “have been stolen” by the blockade imposed by sanctions, Held.
“It’s very simple. We have been criticized, especially in recent days, they have stolen our money (…) Millions of euros have been stolen because most of these sums received by gas, Gazprom, according to your rules, the has had to store in Western banks. Therefore, this money is not accessible,” he denounced.
Asked who can end the conflict, Lavrov said that “the problems started years ago.”
Former President Petro Porosenko (2014-2019), he said, waged war in Donbas with the Russians and stated that “the problem could have been solved” by Zelensky because in his campaign he declared himself a pacifist in his presidential campaign.
Actually he had all the possibilities, all the cards were in his hand. He had publicly declared it and perhaps in an arrogant way he had claimed that he would not have applied the Minsk Agreements because it would mean the destruction of the Ukrainian state”, he reproached.
jc (efe, Archyde.com)