Interfax: End to military operation key to settlement in Ukraine – Lavrov

ST. PETERSBURG. June 10 (Interfax) – The militia in southeastern Ukraine will reciprocate if Kyiv ends the military operation against them, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

“An end to the military operation against protesters is the key to the settlement, in our opinion. If this is done the people you call separatists will reciprocate,” he said after informal talks with his German and Polish counterparts.

“No one wants the war to continue there. But when warplanes attack the center of the city, as the case in Luhansk, when artillery systems are used to shell residential areas, alongside armored personnel carriers and tanks, it is hard to blame people for volunteering to defend the cities and villages where their children live,” the Russian foreign minister said.