'The Crisis Is in the Western Minds & Media': Russia Stresses

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and visiting Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio on Thursday voiced commitment to a diplomatic settlement of the Ukrainian crisis.

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Moscow is ready to continue negotiations on all the points outlined in its security proposals, Lavrov said during a joint briefing with Di Maio following their talks in Moscow. At the same time, Lavrov urged the West to consider Moscow's security demands as a whole, rather than picking certain points from the proposals and ignoring others.

When asked whether tensions regarding Ukraine will ease after Feb. 20, the Russian top diplomat said that Moscow is not involved in stoking up the confrontation.

"Our military exercises will end on Feb. 20 as we have already announced. As for if the escalation will cease afterwards, I do not know," he pointed out, adding that the military crisis is just a media construction.

"The whole situation is not developing on Russian territory. It is developing in the minds, brains and media of the West, primarily the United States and Great Britain,” Lavrov said, as reported by Ruptly.

Di Maio said he believes that Russia and Ukraine are ready to continue negotiations after he met with Lavrov and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Tuesday. "Russia... has emphasized its readiness to discuss and seek ways out of this crisis. I heard the same statements in Kiev from my colleague Kuleba," the Italian Minister pointed out.

During Thursday's talks, Lavrov and Di Maio also discussed the understandings reached during a recent telephone conversation between President Vladimir Putin and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.