Russia’s Lavrov issues ultimatum to Ukraine: ‘For your own good’

Fulfil Moscow’s calls for, ‘in any other case, the problem will likely be determined by the Russian military’, Russia’s international minister mentioned.

Russian International Minister Sergey Lavrov has given Ukraine an ultimatum: Fulfil Moscow’s calls for — together with surrendering Ukrainian territory that Russia now controls — or the Russian military will resolve the destiny of Ukraine.

Talking a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin as soon as once more mentioned he was open to peace talks — and which america has described as disingenuous — Lavrov informed Kyiv that it ought to, for its “personal good”, adjust to Moscow’s needs.

“Our proposals for the demilitarisation and denazification of the territories managed by the regime, the elimination of threats to Russia’s safety emanating from there, together with our new lands, are well-known to the enemy,” state information company TASS quoted Lavrov as saying late on Monday.

“The purpose is straightforward: Fulfil them in your personal good. In any other case, the problem will likely be determined by the Russian military,” Lavrov mentioned.

Requested by TASS how lengthy the battle will final, Lavrov mentioned: “The ball is within the regime’s court docket and Washington behind it.”

On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin once more mentioned Moscow was open to negotiations and blamed Kyiv and its Western backers for a scarcity of talks, feedback which the US has dismissed as insincere.

Because the conflict enters its eleventh month and regardless of myriad battlefield setbacks for Moscow, Russian forces are engaged in fierce preventing within the east and south of Ukraine whereas Russia’s missile and drone assaults have devastated Ukraine’s civil infrastructure, leaving tens of millions with out energy, heating and water.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned in his nightly video handle on Monday that the state of affairs on the entrance within the Donbas area was “tough and painful” and required the entire nation’s “energy and focus”. He mentioned that on account of Russia’s concentrating on of Ukraine’s power infrastructure, practically 9 million individuals have been now with out electrical energy. That determine quantities to a couple of quarter of Ukraine’s inhabitants.

Tens of 1000’s of Ukrainian civilians have additionally been killed in cities Russia razed to the bottom, and 1000’s of troops on each side have died.

Internet hosting leaders of former Soviet states in St Petersburg on Monday for a summit of the Commonwealth of Unbiased States group, Putin made no direct reference to the conflict in Ukraine whereas saying threats to the safety and stability of the Eurasian area have been rising.

“Sadly challenges and threats on this space, particularly from the skin, are solely rising every year,” he mentioned.

For the reason that invasion in February, Ukraine has pushed Russian forces from the north, defeated them on the outskirts of the capital Kyiv and compelled Russian retreats within the east and south. However Moscow nonetheless controls swathes of jap and southern land Putin claims to have annexed.