Interfax: Lavrov: Geneva deal stipulates simultaneous de-escalation, equal commitments of Kyiv, southeast

MOSCOW. April 25 (Interfax) – The Geneva deal stipulates equal commitments of the Ukrainian sides in the vacating of illegally occupied buildings in the southeastern regions and Kyiv, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

“Instead of disarming the Right Sector and other radicals, the Americans claim that everything that the Ukrainian authorities are doing is lawful but the buildings remain occupied. Instead they keep telling us that we, Russia, must vacate the administrative buildings in Donetsk, Luhansk, Slovyansk and other cities of southeastern Ukraine,” Lavrov said at a forum of young CIS diplomats in Moscow.

While in Geneva Russia insisted on “simultaneous processes and equal commitments of the sides in the vacating of any illegally occupied buildings and the disarmament of any illegal units,” Lavrov stressed.

“For instance, State Department representative Victoria Nuland claims it was agreed in Geneva that the separatists must leave [the occupied] buildings in the southeast. This is a lie, that [provision] could not have been written down,” Lavrov said.

It must be remembered that the incumbent Kyiv authorities started to escalate the situation when they staged a coup as an opposition force, he emphasized.

“To claim that we have allegedly signed something in Geneva to legitimize the policy of the incumbent regime and to demand some de-escalation steps exclusively from the southeast is to say sheer lies,” Lavrov stressed.

Hence, Moscow “will insist on showing respect for the Geneva agreements and strongly reject any attempts to distort them,” he said.