Russia's Lavrov says Ukraine cancelled everything including Minsk agreements

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday (March 3) that Ukraine cancelled everything including the Minsk agreement- a series of international agreements that sought to end the Donbas war fought between Russian separatist groups and Ukraine's military. Donbas comprises two big eastern regions, Luhansk and Donetsk, which run from outside Mariupol in the south to the northern border with Russia.

Addressing a conference in India's capital New Delhi, Lavrov said, "And it is the regime (Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky) who started the war against these people. That’s why the Minsk agreements were considered the way to stop this," the news agency ANI reported.

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Lavrov said it was not very difficult to implement the agreements. "It was about the special status for a small part of the east of Ukraine, much smaller than the territory which is controlled by the Russian army now, much smaller," he said.

Lavrov added that the Zelensky government "cancelled, legally cancelled" everything that it had to do with the Russian language. "And when the people who did not accept the coup in the east of Ukraine and in Crimea said, guys, leave us alone, we are not going to follow your policies, they will declare a terrorist," he said while addressing the Raisina Dialogue.

The Russian foreign minister further said there were a lot of things that happened between the lies about not expanding NATO by Ukraine and the anniversary of the war which cannot be “overlooked.”

Lavrov's comments at the Raisina Dialogue come a day after hit out at the West by saying it represented itself as the beacon of democracy but kept on bullying others. "...This invasion (of Ukraine as per the West) reflects the reaction to the war the West was preparing for many years and that is why it was arming the Ukrainian regime..." Lavrov told reporters on Thursday.

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