Lavrov accuses Zelensky of lying regarding readiness to discuss Ukraine's neutral status

MOSCOW. Feb 25 (Interfax) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is lying when he speaks of his readiness to discuss Ukraine's neutral status, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"He is simply lying to you now. To put it simply, he is lying when he says that he is ready to discuss neutral status," Lavrov told reporters on Friday, following a meeting with Luhansk People's Republic Foreign Minister Vladislav Deinego and Donetsk People's Republic First Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Peresada.

"Plenty of opportunities have been missed by President Zelensky. As regards security guarantees, we proposed discussing security guarantees in December of last year, and he was very well aware of that," he said.

"President Zelensky mentioned talks at least in two dimensions. First, he categorically refused to implement the Minsk Agreements and kept calling on his Western sponsors to convene the Normandy format at the drop of a hat, without guaranteeing that these meetings would be accompanied by any real results," Lavrov said.

"The aim of those calls, and it became obvious to everyone, was to substitute concrete work which President Zelensky was supposed to conduct in order to implement the agreements reached during the previous rounds of talks," he said.

"The second example when President Zelensky called for talks was, apart from the fulfilment of the Minsk Agreements, when he wanted talks to be held with him on admission to NATO and to be provided with security guarantees by NATO," he said.

The Ukrainian authorities have declared that if Ukraine is not protected in line with the Budapest Memorandum, it will be exempt from its obligation not to have nuclear weapons, Lavrov said.

"Everyone has read the Budapest Memorandum. It does not contain any obligation to recognize anti-state coups. Nor does it contain an obligation to accommodate a regime that has declared genocide against its own people, opposing the Russian language and Russian education," the minister said.