Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, during the negotiations between the United States and Russia in Saudi Arabia, tried to justify the full -scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine, shifting responsibility for the war to Ukraine and the West. The Russian diplomat repeated the Kremlin's propaganda theses about the alleged "root causes" of the war, among which he called the expansion of NATO and the "discrimination" of the Russian -speaking population in Ukraine.
The Russian delegation stated the need to eliminate the so -called "root causes" of war, among which the Kremlin distinguishes the expansion of NATO and allegedly discriminated against the Ukrainian government of ethnic Russians, Russian language and culture in Ukraine. Experts say that such rhetoric is part of a broader Kremlin information campaign, which tries to present a Russian invasion as a forced step in response to Ukraine and the West.
Lavrov also repeated the demands made by President Putin at the end of 2021, including the neutrality of Ukraine, the rejection of joining NATO, limiting the size of the Ukrainian army and the actual removal of the Ukrainian government from power. In addition, he denied Russia's responsibility for long attempts to destroy Ukrainian energy infrastructure, arguing that Russian troops were struck only by objects that "directly support" the Ukrainian military.
