Lavrov on Ukraine talks Past deals and mistrust

Feb 12, 2015

Asked how trust and a path out of the Ukraine conflict can be rebuilt, Lavrov says existing agreements must be implemented. He recounts the February 2014 political settlement, including an Obama–Putin call, then alleges that its opponents immediately seized power with Western approval. He presents Ukraine's language policies and Crimea and Donbas as grievances. He says the Minsk agreements were sabotaged and interprets later European leaders' remarks as admissions of deception. He recounts the December 2019 Normandy summit and accuses Zelensky of refusing the agreed Donbas special-status approach. He says Russia accepted Ukrainian principles presented in Istanbul in early April 2022 and alleges that Boris Johnson helped prevent their implementation. He claims Russia accepted principles agreed with Trump in Anchorage, while Ukraine and its European supporters obstructed them. Finally, he says repeated talks in Istanbul and Abu Dhabi, including humanitarian discussions, were suspended through no fault of Russia. His assertions about coups, motives, sabotage and agreed peace terms remain attributed; he does not announce a new settlement or negotiating round.

Merkel's June 2022 retrospective describes the Minsk II agreement reached in early 2015 during a severe Ukrainian military situation, including threatened encirclement at Debaltseve. She says the agreement did not meet all Ukraine's interests, brought only limited calm, received EU and UN Security Council backing and gave Ukraine seven years to develop. She rejects the claim that this diplomacy enabled the 2022 invasion, arguing that doing nothing could have allowed greater harm. These are her attributed assessments of the agreement's effects; the later public defense is separately identified and is not the original signing or a December 2022 interview. In the September 26, 2026 press conference, Lavrov recalls Minsk's signing and Security Council endorsement, then accuses Poroshenko and Zelensky of sabotage. His blame-centered interpretation remains alongside Merkel's defense of limited calm and time for Ukraine to develop; neither account is rewritten as the other's admission. In the October 1 Valdai discussions, Putin again alleges nonimplementation and Western obstruction. He offers his own interpretation that provisions could allow southeastern Ukraine to secede if Ukraine joined NATO; this is his treaty interpretation, not an independently established legal conclusion. Although he repeats the claim that Merkel said implementation was never intended, he explicitly adds that she may nonetheless have hoped to steer matters toward peace. His accusations and qualification coexist with Merkel’s June 2022 defense of limited calm and time for Ukraine to develop, rather than rewriting her account as an admission.