"Russia will achieve its goals in Ukraine with patience and persistence," said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

Sergei Viktorovich Lavrov is a Russian diplomat and has been the Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2004 in an interview for a program on the Russian "Perviy Kanal", reported AFP, quoted by BTA.

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"I am convinced that thanks to our persistence, our patience and our determination, we will defend our noble goals, these vital goals for our people and for our country," Lavrov said in the interview.

He added that his country remains always open to equal dialogue and agreements to ensure equal and indivisible security in Europe.

But like the Kremlin before, and now Lavrov recalled that the renewal of the dialogue with Kyiv necessarily requires recognition by Ukraine of the annexation by Russia of four Ukrainian regions - Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions.

Lavrov defined this as an indispensable part of the conditions for diplomatic negotiations with Ukraine.

"The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has repeatedly spoken about the fact that we do not reject proposals to reach diplomatic agreements. The conditions under which we are ready to start discussing these agreements are very well known. And an inalienable part of these conditions is the belonging of these four regions to the Russian Federation," Lavrov said.

Putin: Russia is ready to negotiate on Ukraine

"These areas must be freed from the threat of nazification that they suffered for many years," he added, echoing the Kremlin's argument that Ukraine's Russian-speaking population must be protected against alleged Nazis in power. in Kyiv.

This autumn, the Ukrainian army, aided by Western arms supplies, carried out significant counter-offensives, which notably allowed it to regain control of Kherson, the capital of the Kherson region, in a major blow to Moscow.

"We are not in a hurry, as Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated. We want to finish as well as possible this war that the West has prepared and provoked against us through Ukraine," added Lavrov.

Russian invasion of Ukraine

Sergey Lavrov