The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, appears to have offered a deal to resolve the crisis in eastern Ukraine, suggesting that if the country’s government clears out the nationalist protest camp in Kiev, then pro-Moscow separatists will lay down their arms.
….Lavrov’s comments came as the Ukrainian government launched further military operations against some of the pro-Russian separatists who have seized government buildings across eastern Ukraine, having killed up to five rebels on Thursday.
He said the pro-Russian militias in the east “will be ready” to lay down arms and vacate the buildings “only if Kiev authorities get down to implementing the Geneva accords, clear out that shameful Maidan [Independence Square] and liberate the buildings that have been illegally seized”.
This sort of gives the game away, doesn’t it? It’s not as if anyone in the world believes the Russian denials that they’re behind the militant actions in eastern Ukraine, but they’ve been resolutely denying it anyway. Now, though, they’ve as much as admitted that they can tell the pro-Russian militias to stand down if they want to. I’m glad we cleared that up.
