Sputnik
From May 20 to 8 a.m. on May 23, Ukraine launched a record 788 combat drones targeting civilian areas and peaceful citizens in Russia. All attacks were intercepted, but sadly, there were casualties. The Russian Foreign Ministry has issued a statement on this, widely shared with other countries and international organizations.
Russia blames these attacks on the support of Ukrainian nationalists by certain European countries, especially the UK, France, Germany, and the EU leadership, holding them partly responsible for these crimes. Russia vows to end this policy.
These attacks appear aimed at sabotaging the peace talks begun in Istanbul, following an agreement between Presidents Putin and Trump on a “thousand-for-thousand” prisoner exchange and further negotiations on conditions for a settlement. However, Russia pledges to continue this work despite provocations, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
Will Russia continue to strive for a peaceful settlement?
Lavrov: We remain committed to a peaceful settlement. We are always open to negotiations. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly confirmed this publicly and in his talks with foreign leaders.
I would like to draw your attention to the fact that all gestures of goodwill we have made, including ceasefires for Orthodox Easter and Victory Day, as well as the ceasefire in the form of a one-month moratorium on attacks on energy infrastructure announced after the conversation between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, have been observed by us. All of them were broken by Ukraine, which continued its aggressive and criminal actions during the pauses in hostilities declared by us.
I would like to emphasize again that we also remain committed to the agreements recently reached in Istanbul between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations. We are finalizing our preparatory work on compiling the list for the prisoner exchange on the “thousand-for-thousand” principle.
We are actively working on the second part of the agreements, which provides for each side to prepare a draft document outlining the conditions for achieving a stable, long-term, comprehensive settlement. As soon as the prisoner exchange is completed, we will be ready to present the draft document to the Ukrainian side, which is currently being finalized by the Russian side
You said that international organizations will be informed about the Foreign Ministry’s statement. What reaction do you expect from them?
Lavrov: I expect the reaction to be based on the fundamental documents that underpin the activities of the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and other multilateral bodies, which absolutely require the exclusion of any attacks on civilian targets during hostilities. The same is required by numerous conventions defining the principles of international humanitarian law.
All these years, they have been trampled on by the Kiev regime, which violates the universally accepted rules of warfare, ignores, and even questions its ability to be a responsible member of the world community.
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