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Russian Foreign Minister: Our Position On Kyiv Is The Same, ‘Russia Doesn’t Change Its Position Like A Girl’

Russian Foreign Minister: Our Position On Kyiv Is The Same, ‘Russia Doesn’t Change Its Position Like A Girl’

Kyiv

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, President Vladimir Putin and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meet in Putin's country mansion west of Moscow, Oct. 15, 2005. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said while his country is ready to negotiate with Ukraine, it is not going to change its position “like a girl.” Russia wants the Ukrainian military to stop resisting and lay down its weapons before any meaningful negotiations can take place.

Russia officially invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 after a months-long buildup of hundreds of thousands of troops at its border while denying that it planned an actual attack.

The situation on the ground in Ukraine is extremely fluid after the Russian army made several missile strikes in Ukraine, with its forces said to have reached the outskirt of the capital Kyiv. Accounts of the military situation there are difficult or impossible to confirm.

“Our expectations of Kyiv remain the same, Russia doesn’t change its position “like a girl.” We want to ensure demilitarization of Ukraine,” Lavrov said after the invasion began.

Russia is believed to have 190,000 troops in the vicinity of Ukraine, but it’s not known how many of them have invaded Ukrainian territory. Ukraine’s army has about 145,000 to 150,000 troops, according to a January report from the U.S. Congressional Research Service.

Ukrainian and Russian delegates sat down Monday, Feb. 28 at a location near the border with Belarus for the first direct negotiations between the two countries since Russia launched its invasion five days earlier.

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But little was expected from the negotiations as Russia has proved to be deceptive before and continued to shell several parts of Ukraine even as it sat on the negotiation table.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the increased Russian shelling was meant to pressure the Ukraine delegation. He said his country would demand an immediate cease-fire and withdrawal of Russian troops.

While Ukraine sent its defense minister and other top officials to the negotiations, the Russian delegation was led by Putin’s adviser on culture — an unlikely envoy for ending the war and a sign of how Moscow views the talks.