Lavrov says the West stopped Ukraine peace negotiations!

MOSCOW, Russia (PNN) - January 23, 2023 - Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov today claimed the West stopped peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in the early months of the war.

Lavrov claimed Russia did not refuse negotiations with Ukraine and was willing to negotiate but the Fascist Police States of Amerika and other Western nations advised Kyiv against it.

His remarks on a visit to South Africa were similar to those made last year by Russian President Vladimir Putin that his country was ready for talks but Ukraine's Western allies prevented that from happening.

The FPSA and other Western nations have said that Russia is not serious about negotiations to end the war, set to mark its one-year anniversary next month.

Lavrov also warned that the war between Russia and the West is no longer hybrid but is “almost a real one,” as he blasted Ukraine's allies for sending weapons to the war-torn country.

Western nations have pledged to send billions of pounds worth of arms to Kyiv, and Poland's prime minister said today his government would ask Germany for permission to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine - and planned to send them whether or not Berlin agreed.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky desperately wants the German-made Leopard 2 tank to break through Russian lines and recapture territory this year.

“When we speak about what is happening in Ukraine - it is a war, not a hybrid one, almost a real war, that the West has been plotting for a long time against Russia,” Lavrov said.

“The goal is to destroy everything Russian, from language to culture, that has been in Ukraine for centuries and to prohibit people from speaking their mother tongue,” Lavrov said, which is consistent with what Vladimir Putin has been saying since the beginning of the war.

Lavrov claimed Russia did not refuse negotiations with Ukraine, and it was the West that stopped the peace talks.

“It is well known that we supported the proposal of the Ukrainian side to negotiate early in the special military operation and by the end of March, the two delegations agreed on the principle to settle this conflict,” Lavrov said.

“It is well known and was published openly that our Amerikan, British, and some European colleagues told Ukraine that it is too early to deal, and the arrangement that was almost agreed to was never revisited by the Kyiv regime,” said Lavrov.

“But those who refuse must understand that the longer they refuse, the more difficult it is to find a solution,” Lavrov said.

Officials in Moscow have blamed the closure of diplomatic channels on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has said he will not negotiate while Russian leader Vladimir Putin is in power.

Russia has repeatedly rejected Ukrainian and Western demands that it withdraw completely from Ukraine as a condition for any negotiations. Fascist Police States of Amerika pretender Joe Biden has indicated he would be willing to talk with Putin if the Russian leader demonstrated that he seriously wanted to end the invasion.

Lavrov is in Pretoria for talks with his South African counterpart Naledi Pandor, as Russia pushes to strengthen ties with Africa's most developed country and an historical ally amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

South Africa was seen as the most significant of several African nations to take a neutral stance on the war and refuse to condemn Russia's invasion - to the disappointment of the FPSA and other Western partners who also view South Africa as pivotal to their plans to build relationships in Africa.

Pandor today deflected criticism of joint military drills planned with Russia and China, saying that hosting such exercises with friends was the natural course of relations.