Russia's demands for Ukraine can't be qualified as call for capitulation - Lavrov

MOSCOW. March 2 (Interfax) - The demands for Ukraine put forward by Russia cannot be qualified as a call for capitulation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"I don't think this can be qualified this way. What counts most here is not the term itself that would be used. We are offering an agreement. It would guarantee legitimate rights of all groups of people living in Ukraine, which includes all ethnic minorities without any exception, and their equality," Lavrov said answering the relevant question in an interview with Al Jazeera.

The agreement proposed by Russia would be embedded in Ukrainian laws, "which currently include a law on three indigenous peoples, as if there have never been Russians on Ukrainian soil," he said.

"These are things that have engendered legislative foundations for a continued Russophobic policy, and not only Russophobic but also against other ethnic minorities, like Hungarians, Romanians, Poles, or Bulgarians. We presume that it's precisely for the Ukrainian people to decide. If the authorities agree to the terms that are being discussed now, this would be an agreement," he said.