Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov today denied that Ukraine has a right to national sovereignty because, as he said, the government in Kiev does not represent its constituent parts, Interfax news agency reported, calling on all countries to follow Moscow’s example. to recognize the breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
“Recognition of the Donetsk and Luhansk democracies is necessary and (is) the only possible decision” in the current circumstances, the ministry said in a statement the day after Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of those regions.
“If we are talking about the principles of national sovereignty and territorial integrity, one of the key documents … is the Declaration on the principles of international law, which concerns friendly relations and cooperation between states,” he said. Foreign Minister
Lavrov accused Ukraine of deviating from this since 2014, when the Moscow-backed president was ousted in Kiev and replaced by a pro-Western leader, forcing Russia to annex the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and support separatists in the east.
“I do not think anyone can claim that the Ukrainian regime, since the 2014 coup, has represented all citizens living in the territory of the Ukrainian state,” Lavrov said.
The Russian Foreign Minister rejected the threat of sanctions, saying that the West would impose them regardless of the outcome of the events and described the expected reaction of the West to Moscow’s recognition of the independence of the two breakaway Ukrainian regions.
“Our European, American, British colleagues will not stop and calm down if they do not exhaust all the possibilities for the so-called ‘punishment of Russia’. They are already threatening us with all kinds of sanctions or, as they claim now, with their ‘mother’. “We are used to it. We know that sanctions will be imposed on us anyway, in any case. With or without reason,” Lavrov said.
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