Those countries that the West is “courting” in its efforts to promote the peace formula put forward by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky need to understand that the future of millions of Russians is at stake, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

“All the countries that the West is courting to push ‘Zelensky’s formula’ definitely need to understand that these people’s future is at stake as the Kiev regime has openly threatened to destroy them,” Lavrov said in response to a question from International Affairs magazine about initiatives aimed at resolving the Ukrainian crisis.

“The need to put an end to these neo-Nazi threats is clear. However, initiatives ‘on Ukraine,’ whose number is growing, are silent about this issue, while actions violating the rights of Russian speakers continue unabated,” the top diplomat noted.

According to Lavrov, given numerous initiatives for resolving the situation in Ukraine, Russia reaffirmed that it appreciated all efforts to achieve a fair and sustainable peace. “Clearly, it’s impossible to find justice in any conflict without making sure that everyone fully respects the rights of ethnic minorities. Especially because there is no alternative to that for Ukraine, where Russian has always been the mother tongue for most of the population,” he maintained. “Why don’t his Western impresarios ask him [Zelensky] to publicly present another ‘formula’ to the international community, clarifying how Kiev envisions the status of Russians and other ethnic minorities in the country after Ukraine secures the ‘victory’ for the sake of which NATO and the EU have spared neither money nor weapons?” the Russian foreign minister asked rhetorically.

He added that this would help many countries in the Global South, which are not indifferent to the situation, to better understand what’s going on. “We could see during numerous discussions and talks at the second Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg that they are really interested in fully sorting out the root causes of the crisis and the prospects for finding a way out of it,” Lavrov emphasized.

While addressing the G20 summit via video link in November 2022, Zelensky put forward a ten-point plan “to achieve peace.” The document stipulates the need to ensure nuclear, food and energy security; carry out an “all-for-all” exchange of “detained persons”; and restore Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova earlier stressed that Zelensky’s so-called peace plan was nothing more than another US-created manual on how to fuel the conflict in Europe. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, in turn, noted that Zelensky was making statements about a peaceful solution without taking the actual situation into account.