"There was probably a wish to greatly aggravate the situation ahead of this summit, bearing in mind that G7 members have stated that sanctions against Russia will be in force until Russia fulfills the Minsk agreements," Lavrov told reporters after a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Vladimir Makei.
The Minsk accords were agreed upon in February by both Kiev forces and Donbas independence fighters in eastern Ukraine. Both parties, however, accused each other since then of violating the agreements that envisaged ceasefire, withdrawal of heavy weaponry and prisoner exchange, among other things.
The minister added that by linking anti-Russia sanctions with the implementation of the Minsk agreements, the West has become hostage to Ukrainian authorities.
Earlier in the day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said G7 needed to pressure correct parties in fulfilling the Minsk agreements instead of blaming Russia.
On Sunday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, present at the G7 summit, said sanctions against Russia would be lifted if the Minsk agreement were fully adhered to. She noted that it depended both on Moscow and on Kiev's policy.
The leaders of the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada met on Sunday in Germany for a summit. The summit's agenda includes, apart from the conflict in Ukraine, counter-terrorism efforts, migration policy and climate change.
Russia will push the eastern Ukrainian self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s republics to fulfill their part of the Minsk agreements and hopes the West will do the same with Kiev, Russian Foreign Minister said.
“We understand that Germany, France and other colleagues in the European Union, as well as the United States, according at least to [US Secretary of State] John Kerry while he was in Sochi on May 12, will work with the Ukrainian authorities and push then to an honest and complete fulfillment of the Minsk agreements. We believe this to be their responsibility as we will continue working with Donets and Luhansk to push them to continue to constructively and completely fulfill the Minsk-2 [agreements],” Lavrov said during a joint press conference with Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei in Moscow.
The resignation of the negotiator in the Ukrainian crisis from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Heidi Tagliavini, is most likely because of personal reasons and not her disappointment in the talks, Sergei Lavrov said.
“I wouldn’t say that Heidi Tagliavini’s resignation is because she’s disappointed in the likelihood of the Minsk agreements being fulfilled, she most likely has some sort of a personal reason [for leaving],” Lavrov said during a joint press conference with Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei in Moscow.
Moscow calls on the West not to allow the recurrence of military solutions to the crisis in eastern Ukraine, Sergei Lavrov said.
“We call on our Western colleagues not to allow the recurrence of military solutions [in the Ukrainian crisis],” Lavrov said during a joint press conference with Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei in Moscow.
Lavrov stressed the need for joint efforts on fulfilling the Minsk agreements in order to solve the Ukrainian crisis.
“Because the alternative, as Kiev periodically voices, is a military scenario,” Lavrov added.
