The head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday welcomed some of the comments of US President-elect Donald Trump, recognizing the “ground realities” in Ukraine, saying however to wait for him to formulate his « position » definitive.
“When President Trump, once he becomes president, finally formulates his position on the Ukraine issue, we will of course study it”he declared during a press conference. “First of all, just the fact that people have started to mention the realities on the ground more, that’s probably to be commended”said Sergei Lavrov.
Moscow insists that any potential agreement to end the conflict in Ukraine, launched almost three years ago, must take these into account. “ground realities”.
A way of emphasizing that Russia, in a position of strength on the front, does not intend to return the approximately 20% of Ukrainian territory that it has seized.
Conjectures have been rife for weeks about the conditions for possible peace negotiations, due to the return on January 20 to the White House of Donald Trump, who promised to quickly put an end to the conflict, without specifying how. Sergei Lavrov recalled on Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin was ready to meet Mr. Trump, but that Moscow was waiting for “concrete initiatives”.
He was also satisfied with recent remarks by the American president-elect on Ukraine’s desire to join NATO.
Last week, Donald Trump accused the current US President, Joe Biden, of opening the door to the Alliance to Ukraine and suggesting that this had contributed to the Russian assault of February 2022. “At one point, Biden said ‘they should be able to join NATO.’ Well Russia had someone on their doorstep, I can understand the feeling [des Russes] about this »declared Donald Trump.
In fact, NATO countries had promised as early as 2008 that Ukraine would one day become a member of the Alliance. But the United States and Germany are reluctant to go beyond this promise for fear that the Alliance would be drawn into conflict with Russia.
Concerning Greenland, a territory that Donald Trump threatened to annex, Sergei Lavrov judged that it was necessary “listen to the Greenlanders”. He considered that the Russian authorities had thus “listened to the residents of Crimea, Donbass”in reference to the Ukrainian peninsula annexed in 2014 by Russia and the eastern Ukrainian region which it partially occupies and whose annexation it claims.
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