Speaking at a press conference after the talks, Sergey Lavrov warned the West against giving Ukraine arms, claiming that countries that do so “create a threat to themselves because those arms lack controls on their use.”
“Foreign colleagues, including the EU, act dangerously when they deliver deadly weapons to Ukraine,” said Lavrov, adding that “those who send weapons to Ukraine, (or) encourage mercenaries, will be responsible for their actions.”
On Russia’s bombing of a maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine on Wednesday, Lavrov said, “The Western media twisted facts about the bombed maternity house in Mariupol, as there were no patients there,” adding that Moscow gave the UN evidence that the facility was being used by the Azov battalion, a Ukrainian militia that has been linked to Nazism.
Lavrov also claimed that Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed to Thursday’s meeting to “show off,” not to genuinely address problems.
He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not refusing to hold a meeting with Zelenskyy but that more preparatory work needs to be done.
“Putin never avoids contacts. We just don't want these contacts to happen (just) for words,” said Lavrov.
Russia would not have started the “military operation” in Ukraine if the West had not rejected Moscow’s proposal for security guarantees, said Lavrov, also claiming: “Everything Russian was and is being attacked in Ukraine.”
