10 Mar 2022 17:22

Moscow ready to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine together with guarantees for Europe and Russia - Lavrov

ANTALYA. March 10 (Interfax) - Russia stands ready to discuss guarantees of its security along with security guarantees for Ukraine and European countries, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

"Of course, we want Ukraine to be neutral. [Russian] President Vladimir Putin has said many times that, while insisting on NATO's non-enlargement, we by no means want to deny security to the Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian state," Lavrov said at a press conference in Antalya on Thursday.

"And we are ready to discuss security guarantees for the Ukrainian state along with guarantees of security for European countries and, of course, guarantees of security for Russia," the minister said.

Russia does not want Ukraine's militarization, "regardless of whether it is done in NATO or without NATO, because even without NATO, it is possible to supply [Ukraine] with American systems, which will have our [Russian] territory in the cross hairs," Lavrov said.

Nor does Russia want "the tendency toward building a neo-Nazi state in Ukraine with neo-Nazi traditions to remain in place," he said.