Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with NBC that the Kremlin is allegedly ready to "recognize Ukraine's right to exist" only on the condition that Kyiv abandons the temporarily occupied territories and recognizes them as part of the Russian Federation.
According to Lavrov, Moscow demands that Ukraine officially recognize the illegal "referendums" of 2014 and 2022 regarding Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson regions.
" Ukraine has the right to exist on the condition that it "releases" people. People whom they call "terrorists" who, in several referendums in Novorossia, in Donbas, in Crimea, decided that they belong to Russian culture ," the Russian Foreign Minister said.
Thus, the Kremlin is actually demanding that Ukraine legitimize aggression and occupation, under the guise of rhetoric about the "right to self-determination."
In response, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed that all temporarily occupied territories are an integral part of Ukraine, and there will be no concessions to the aggressor.
