The 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 a television interview Italian issued on Sunday.
“We don’t want (Ukrainian President Volodímir Zelensky) to surrender, but rather to order an end to hostilities. Our goal is not regime change in Ukraine, that is a specialty of the United States,” he said on the Italian channel Rete4, in his first interview with a European media outlet since the Russian invasion, on 24 February.
And added, replying in Russian and translated into Italian: “We want to guarantee the safety of the population of the east (the Donbas), threatened by the militarization and Nazification of this country, and that no threats reach the Russian Federation from Ukraine.”
Denies Russian authorship in the massacre of civilians
The minister, asked about the issue, returned to deny Russian authorship of the massacres in cities like Bucha, emphasizing that its soldiers left the city on 24 of March, despite the testimonies to the contrary and the images released by the press, which he continuously criticized.
“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 Jewish origins”.
On the other hand, he did not answer whether this week’s attack was a provocation against kyiv on the day that the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, was in the city, nor did he clarify the state of health of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Ask foreign leaders who have met with him”, interrupted the head of Russian diplomacy.
Recognizes the effects of the 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 imports of gas “have been stolen” by the blockade imposed by the sanctions, he maintained.
“It is 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, has had to keep them in the banks Westerners. Therefore, this money is not accessible”, he denounced.
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Asked by who can end to 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 claimed that “the problem could have been solved” by Zelenski because in his campaign he declared himself a pacifist in his presidential campaign.
he Actually he had all the possibilities, all the cards were in his hand. He publicly declared it and perhaps in an arrogant way he claimed that he would not have applied the Minsk Agreements because it would mean the destruction of the Ukrainian state”, he reproached.
jc (efe, reuters)
2022