Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Ukraine’s proposed peace plan as well as the latest United Nations proposals to revive the Black Sea grain initiative are both “not realistic”.
Mr Lavrov spoke after a week of intense global diplomacy at the annual gathering of world leaders at UN headquarters in New York where Ukraine and its allies sought to drum up support as it fights a war on its territory against the invading Russian forces.
“It is completely not feasible,” he said of a 10-point peace blueprint promoted by Ukraine.
“It is not possible to implement this. It’s not realistic and everybody understands this but at the same time they say this is the only basis for negotiations.”
He said the conflict would be resolved on the battlefield if Ukraine and its allies stuck to that stance.
Mr Lavrov added that Russia left the Black Sea grain initiative because promises made to the country – including on removing sanctions on a Russian bank and reconnecting it to the global SWIFT system – had not been met.
In a letter to the foreign minister last month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres outlined four measures the UN could facilitate to improve Russia’s grain and fertiliser exports in a bid to convince Russia to return to the Black Sea deal, which allowed Ukraine to export grain through the corridor and helped address a global food shortage.
“We explained to the Secretary General why his proposals won’t work. We don’t reject them. They’re simply not realistic. They cannot be implemented,” Lavrov said on Saturday.
Mr Lavrov said he would visit Pyongyang next month to continue negotiations with his counterpart there off the back of recent agreements made by Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
He accused the United States and the European Union of a neo-colonial mindset in its overtures to the Global South to win backing for Ukraine in the war.
The foreign minister also said his country is not interested in a “large-scale war”.
“It is entirely up to us how history will play out,” he told the 78th session of the UN General Assembly.
“It is in our shared interest to prevent a downward spiral into large-scale war and to prevent the final collapse of the mechanisms for international co-operation,” Lavrov said.
Sergei Lavrov’s address to the UN General Assembly comes at the tail-end of the general debate, which kicked off last Tuesday and is set to end on Tuesday, September 26, following a break on Sunday and Monday.
Overall, more than 140 heads of state and government will give speeches at the General Assembly’s high-level debate.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addressed the meeting on Tuesday, when he tried to solidify support for his country, warning the leaders gathered in New York that Russia poses a threat to the world.
—AAP with DPA
The post Russia dismisses Ukraine plan, grain deal proposal appeared first on The New Daily.
