MOSCOW, September 8. /TASS/. Russia is always ready for talks on Ukraine so long as it is rooted in the causes of the crisis and aimed at reaching agreements to address them, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference after talks with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.
According to the top Russian diplomat, the European Union continues to do all it can to prevent the situation around Ukraine from moving toward a long-term settlement by addressing those very root causes of the conflict.
TASS has summed up the Russian foreign minister’s key statements.
Ukrainian settlement
Russia values Saudi Arabia’s efforts toward ensuring a lasting settlement of the Ukrainian crisis: "We are thankful to our Saudi friends for their principled, responsible, and well-balanced position on Ukraine, for their aspiration to make a contribution to the settlement of humanitarian problems that emerged amid this situation, and for their overall role in the common efforts toward ensuring a lasting political settlement on the basis of removing the well-known root causes of this crisis."
