LAVROV - The key matters are security in the context of Ukraine’s non-accession to the NATO

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Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to media questions following the High-Level Week of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly, New York, September 28, 2024.
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Question: Yesterday, former president Trump met with President Zelensky and promised that, if he is elected in November, he will get the war resolved quickly. What is your comment on this? What do you think about this meeting?

Sergey Lavrov: Several months ago, Donald Trump claimed he would need 24 hours. His promise has slightly changed.

We will welcome any initiatives that can bring a desired outcome – and there is only one: settling the problem by removing the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis. The primary root cause of the problem is that, despite assurances, NATO has continued to expand, and the West has not complied with its obligations that were approved at the highest level by the OSCE. Specifically, the countries committed to not strengthening their security at the expense of any other country’s security. Secondly, the agreement was that no organisation within the OSCE domain can claim prevalence.

It is exactly what NATO has been doing. It has continued its expansion, swallowing more states, developing military infrastructure and deploying weapons on their territories. Ukraine was next in line. That posed direct security threats to the Russian Federation. NATO planned to build military bases in Crimea, on the Sea of Azov, and to deploy its weapons there, which would be a threat to our state. We could not allow that.

The security of a state is always important. It is not an abstract notion but something essential to ordinary people. Right now, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and his representative are saying that the UN’s stance is unwavering, and it advocates for settling this crisis as soon as possible with respect for international law, the UN Charter and Ukraine’s territorial integrity. The head of the UN Secretariat should have a deeper knowledge of the Charter. I have just said that during the plenary meeting.

The most important part of the document to me – and, apparently, to the UN founders – is Article 1 that encourages respect for human rights without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.

Whenever it is relevant and even when it is not, our Western colleagues put the issue of human rights in the forefront. They have made every effort to ensure that human rights be blown out of proportions and given the utmost priority in the Pact for the Future. The pact even states that the UN Human Rights Council shall be granted powers that are outside of the member states’ control. However, when it comes to the Ukrainian crisis, the West has completely ignored human rights.

I quoted the provision on respecting human rights without distinction as to language or religion. I reminded the General Assembly today that the Russian language has been eradicated in Ukraine by law, from early learning and through higher education. All Russian-language media have been expelled from Ukraine or shut down. Speaking about culture, books in Russian are being thrown out of libraries like they did it in Nazi Germany. The canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church has been banned although the Ukrainian Constitution still claims that the state protects the rights of Russians and other national minorities, including their education and so on.

We have not been able to get an answer from the West or UN Secretary-General Guterres: why is everybody silent when so many initiatives on approaches to settlement are out there?

The key matters are security in the context of Ukraine’s non-accession to the North Atlantic Alliance or any other military bloc, and the matter of human rights.

It is not about territories. Vladimir Zelensky is asking to restore the borders as of 1991. We are rather focused on people who have lived on these lands for centuries, developed them, built plants, roads, ships and much more. These are the true reasons.

If Donald Trump manages to have these laws abolished, it will be a step forward. It would be the simplest thing, just to cast a vote.

There is one more aspect that nobody is mentioning either. President of Russia Vladimir Putin has stressed this repeatedly. Vladimir Zelensky signed an executive order prohibiting any talks with Russia. Therefore, I cannot suggest any ideas on how they are going to improve this process.

Our stance is crystal clear. The root causes must be removed. Everybody knows what they are.