Moscow, Feb 25, (dpa/GNA) – Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, has conducted talks with senior separatist officials in Moscow about the “military operation” the Kremlin, launched in Ukraine this week, his ministry says.
Lavrov repeated the Russian government line that the attack was necessary, to free the Moscow-backed separatist areas of eastern Ukraine from Kiev’s “oppression.”
Lavrov met with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Peresada, of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, and Foreign
Minister Vladislav Deinego, of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic.
According to the Interfax agency, Lavrov said that the population in rebel areas had been subjected to “shelling by the Kiev regime.” Lavrov once again baselessly claimed that there was “genocide” taking place in these areas and that evidence would be presented to the United Nations.
Ukraine and the West have rejected the accusation as propaganda that is only meant to create a pretext to justify Russia’s invasion of its neighbour.
GNA