РУССКИЙ
20:23 27.05.2025 •
Photo: muhalif.com.tr
Russia values the opportunities provided by Turkey for the Moscow-Kiev talks, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the meeting in Moscow with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan (photo), TASS reports.
"Of course, as [Russian President Vladimir] Putin said yesterday, we value all the opportunities Turkey has once again provided for another round of direct talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations," the top diplomat said.
According to Lavrov, the agenda for the talks with the Turkish side is extensive, as it is defined by the agreements and understandings that have been reached during meetings between the two countries' leaders. "Our mutual intention to achieve results and consequently deepen our partnership was confirmed yesterday in the Kremlin when you were received by President Putin," the Russian foreign minister added, addressing his Turkish counterpart.
"I am confident that today's meeting will facilitate the implementation of the tasks assigned to us by our leaders," the top diplomat concluded.
Fidan is on a two-day visit to Russia at Lavrov's invitation. On May 26, he was received in the Kremlin by the Russian head of state. The Turkish foreign minister also met with presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, who led the Russian delegation in talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on May 16.
President Vladimir Putin confirmed Moscow's determination to advance joint projects with Turkey despite attempts from external forces to hinder cooperation, Sergei Lavrov said at the press conference.
"Yesterday, President Putin very clearly confirmed our determination to advance a positive agenda, to advance practical cooperation projects, and they are very, very ambitious, despite attempts to impede our legitimate rights, both Russia and Turkey, to develop such interaction," Lavrov noted.
He described his talks with his Turkish counterpart as "useful and fruitful."
"Today we confirmed our mutual interest in strengthening the Russian-Turkish partnership, our common readiness to work on expanding areas of interaction and resolving those issues that inevitably arise in relations between countries such as Russia and Turkey, especially in conditions when the West is artificially trying to introduce unlawful complications into these relations," Lavrov said.
The success of the talks between Moscow and Kiev hinges on eliminating the root causes of the Ukrainian conflict, Sergey Lavrov said.
"Russian President [Vladimir Putin] has repeatedly said in his recent addresses that the success of the talks will depend on whether we manage to eliminate the well-known root causes of the conflict during these talks," the top diplomat said.
He also pointed out that Russia is grateful "to Turkey for continuing to facilitate talks and the peace settlement as a whole." According to Lavrov, Moscow "is interested in implementing all agreements achieved over the last three years regarding Ukraine." "But, unfortunately, the same cannot be said about our Ukrainian neighbors. Their Western handlers allowed them to do whatever they wanted. In fact, they directly instigated them to do so," the foreign minister added.
"Regarding a second round of talks between Russia and Ukraine, if you ask me, I would turn to our Turkish friends again, for it’s very good in Istanbul," Russia’s top diplomat said.
On Monday, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was currently no understanding regarding the location or timing of the next round of talks with Kiev.
Sergey Lavrov has said that the decision to permit Ukraine to use long-range weapons against targets in Russia was made some time ago and has remained undisclosed. He made this statement during a news conference while commenting on German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's recent remarks about lifting restrictions on the range of weapons supplied to Kiev.
Lavrov criticized Merz's comments as indicative of the "level of competence" among European leaders. He noted that Merz had passionately declared that there would be no restrictions on strike ranges "henceforth and forever," only to be contradicted shortly thereafter by his vice-chancellor, who stated that no such changes were being discussed. Similar clarifications reportedly came from representatives of the Bundeswehr.
"Then Mr. Merz, apparently realizing what he had said, claimed that he was not referring to a new decision but to a previous one made by the prior Berlin administration," Lavrov explained. "This suggests that the decision to allow Ukraine to pursue strikes on Russian territory – at least within some limits – was made quite some time ago and simply kept under wraps."
On Monday, Merz announced that Germany had lifted all restrictions on the range of Ukrainian strikes using German-supplied weapons on Russian territory. He further stated that a similar decision had been made by Britain and France.
The speculations that the United States allegedly wants change the negotiator in the Russian delegation replaced is a rumor, Sergey Lavrov told the news conference.
"As for the rumors about the United States’ wish to see the Russian negotiator replaced, you know, we communicate normally with the United States these days, in contrast to the tenure of [former US President Joe] Biden, which has faded into oblivion. If the United States wants to let us know something, it knows how to do it this without resorting to the humiliating tactic of spreading rumors," Lavrov said.
At the same time, Lavrov emphasized that it was Russian leader Vladimir Putin who appointed Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky to the Ukraine negotiating team. "As for the head of Russia's negotiating team, Mr. Medinsky, he was appointed, if someone else may still have doubts, by Russian President Putin and not by the head or representative of any other state," Lavrov added.
Statements from French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot asserting that his country is not waging a war on Russia are a lie, as Kiev uses French missiles for strikes inside Russia, Sergey Lavrov said.
"There is a French foreign minister, Mr. Barrot. When he stated – I guess, at a news conference yesterday – with French enthusiasm, that France is not fighting against the Russian people or against Russia and that France has contributed to sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine and its armed forces, well, he told a lie," Lavrov argued. "France is waging a war on Russia indeed because its longer-range missiles are being used by the Nazi regime in Kiev for strikes on Russian soil, mostly for strikes against civilian facilities," he added.
In this regard, Lavrov advised his French counterpart to revive the old motto of all freedom-loving politicians in France – freedom, equality, fraternity. "It also covers human rights, an idea being promoted by France here, there and everywhere regarding any situation at any location globally, except for the Ukraine conflict," he noted.
Syrian Foreign Minister Assad al-Shaibani has a standing invitation to visit Russia, Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference following talks with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan.
"At the suggestion of my friend Hakan Fidan, we held a meeting this April in Antalya with the Syrian foreign minister. The top Syrian diplomat has an open invitation to visit Russia," Lavrov pointed out.
According to Lavrov, Russia is maintaining a dialogue with the new Syrian authorities.
"[Russian] President [Vladimir Putin] spoke with Mr. [Syrian President Ahmad] al-Sharaa over the phone and sent him a message in March, following their conversation, on how he sees the future of our trade, economic, and other relations under the new circumstances," Lavrov recalled. "An interdepartmental delegation of ours visited Damascus in January and held talks with President al-Sharaa," the foreign minister noted.
Russia welcomes lifting of anti-Syrian sanctions by the United States, Sergey Lavrov said.
"Sanctions against Syria was a step we condemned and demanded its termination because although it was formally announced that sanctions were introduced against the regime of Bashar al-Assad, they in reality painfully hit all the strata of the Syrian society," the top Russian diplomat added.
"We welcome that President [of the US Donald] Trump comprehended the need for such step, because exactly the Syrian people were suffering," Lavrov added.
Moscow and Ankara both believe that Syria’s sovereignty must be respected and that it’s important to help the Syrian authorities during the country’s transitional period, Sergey Lavrov said after talks with his visiting Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan.
"We reiterated our shared view concerning the expediency of and need for a close dialogue on Syria," he told a news conference. "We stressed both sides’ commitment to respecting Syria’s sovereignty, political unity, and territorial integrity and pointed to the importance of support for the Syrian authorities in their efforts to address serious challenges facing them in the transitional period."
According to the top Russian diplomat, the two countries would also like to collaborate further to help resolve problems in the Middle East and North Africa, including in Libya where the situation is escalating again. "We agreed to use our influence with the Libyan parties to prevent a renewed flare-up of hostilities," Lavrov said.
Apart from that, in his words, Moscow and Ankara share a common perspective on the Palestinian crisis, both believing that what is now happening in the Gaza Strip is unacceptable. "In fact, prospects for the establishment of the Palestinian state, as envisaged by United Nations resolutions, are deliberately being derailed by means of creating so-called facts on the ground. A lot of civilians have died or been injured and this number continues to grow. We will use our influence both in relations with countries of the region and within the United Nations to find ways to end this violence and return to the agreements ensuring a lasting ceasefire that were once reached but were violated later," the Russian minister pledged.
"Russia will maintain close cooperation with the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, where Turkey currently holds the presidency, to use our joint authority, our combined capabilities to put an end to this literally ages-old catastrophe," Lavrov emphasized.
US President Donald Trump is interested in Russia and Ukraine continuing their talks, Sergey Lavrov said.
"President Trump has already stated that this is not his war. He is interested in negotiations between Russia and Ukraine continuing. This was, basically, their joint initiative – his and President [of Russia Vladimir] Putin’s," he said.
The minister said he is seeing attempts by Brussels to disrupt the resumed talks between Moscow and Kiev.
"It’s not that I think Brussels could disrupt the resumed negotiation process, I am seeing these attempts. As any objective observer is seeing them," he said.
According to Lavrov, the attempt are sometimes manifested through completely unprecedented actions and statements.
"Most importantly, such confusion and nervousness stems from the fact that they realize that if they are on their own, the European hawks – led by France, the UK, Germany and also Poland – if they are on their own, they do not have enough strength to continue this war. They are very afraid, simply scared to death, that the United States will give up on them and say, 'You made this mess with [former US President Joe] Biden, you go ahead and make it right,'" he said.
Lavrov said the reason why European leaders are trying to stymie the talks is that "if the war suddenly stops, they will end their political careers with shame, ingloriously."
"They put their cheap, selfish interests above the interests of their peoples, demanding from them that they suffer, pay 3-4 times more for energy and goods, put up with the arrangements that EU countries generously provide for Ukrainian goods, put up with a lot of things, including outright lies and fraud during elections in the countries where sound-minded people can come to power," he said.
US President Donald Trump is a man who doesn't like people standing in the way of his goals, so his recent public emotional outbursts are understandable, given Kiev and Europe's push to sabotage the peace process in Ukraine, Sergey Lavrov said.
He pointed out at a press conference following talks with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan that Trump is a person "who wants results."
"He sees some of the Europeans are working to sabotage his efforts [on a peace settlement], pushing Ukraine to absolutely reckless actions, including drone attacks on Moscow, our other towns and even our president’s helicopter. <…> Of course, he gets emotional, and, of course, as someone who does not like anything to stand in the way of his noble goals, he looks at it a certain way, shifts rhetoric," Lavrov said in response to a question about what Moscow thinks about Trump’s recent harsh words towards the Russian head of state.
At the same time, the top diplomat emphasized that Russia doesn’t want to overreact to the US president’s statements, as world leaders are prone to changes in rhetoric and can get emotional sometimes.
"The most important thing is not to focus on mere rhetoric, but rather to ensure that Europe stops sabotaging our peace plans, which are supported by both the US and Turkey, and to which Russia is fully committed," Lavrov noted.
Russia's recent retaliatory strikes, which targeted solely Ukrainian military sites, are completely justified, because 'criminals must be punished,' Sergey Lavrov said at the press conference.
"Our retaliatory strikes are absolutely justified in this situation: criminals must be punished," the Russian foreign minister stressed. "I can assure you, [Ukraine’s Vladimir] Zelensky and his junta know perfectly well what we were responding to, just as they know perfectly well that unlike their strikes, ours were carried out solely on military facilities used by the Ukrainian army."
"You want to know about the strikes on Russia’s territory that the Ukrainian side carried out during the announced Easter truce, the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War, and earlier during the declared moratorium on strikes on energy sites. This was the initiative of [US President Donald] Trump, put forward following a telephone conversation with our President [Vladimir Putin]. We supported it, and for a month we refrained from strikes on energy infrastructure facilities," Lavrov said.
"All this time, during all periods, whatever they are called – ceasefire, moratorium or truce – the Kiev regime went on carrying out targeted, deliberate strikes on energy and any other civilian infrastructure, on residential houses, stores, kindergartens, schools, on civilians in general. There were people killed and injured among them, and unfortunately there are continuing civilian casualties," the top Russian diplomat pointed out.
"The fact that the Western elite, primarily in Europe, but in the United States as well, tried to turn a blind eye to this is obvious to all," Lavrov noted. "The fact that those who shall report to their leaders about the situation revolving around the Ukraine conflict - especially since these leaders in Europe are now considering this crisis their main problem and demanding a ‘strategic defeat’ of Russia at any cost - the fact that the truth is not reported to them means that either they are unwilling to know the truth or it is being withheld from them."
"I am convinced that those who speak out with Russophobic views and are agitated most, those who are trying to push the United States, the current US administration, to the [former US leader Joe] Biden position, the 'warpath’ position – they understand very well what is happening," Lavrov said.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan described talks in Moscow with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, as very positive.
"I would like to thank Mr. Lavrov. I was happy to be in Moscow after a year’s break. And we had important talks yesterday. We met with Mr. [President Vladimir] Putin [of Russia]. The visit allowed us to discuss our multifaceted relations," Fidan told reporters following the talks. "And today, we had an opportunity to discuss regional, bilateral and global problems. Those were very positive talks," he said.
According to Turkey’s top diplomat, relations between Turkey and Russia play an important role in ensuring regional stability. "Our leaders maintain strong ties that enable us to develop result-driven bilateral relations. We have very important ties with Russia. <…> We seek to deepen the bilateral relationship," he concluded.
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