Lavrov invites Zelensky to Moscow for talks on ‘normalizing relations’
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to visit Moscow to discuss “normalizing relations” between Ukraine and Russia.
“If Zelensky wants to discuss normalizing (Ukraine’s) relations with Russia… we’re ready (to do so) – he should come to Moscow or Sochi, wherever they decide,” Lavrov said during an interview with Russian media outlet RBC on Jan. 28.
He added that the Kremlin is open to discussing Ukraine-Russia bilateral relations, but not Russia’s covert war on Ukraine in the Donbas, which Moscow maintains is an “internal Ukrainian crisis.”
A Russian troop buildup that began in late autumn on the Ukrainian border was first widely reported in early December 2021, with several media outlets speculating that Russia might invade Ukraine with a force of 175,000 troops in early 2022.
Some of those forces are deployed to Belarus, under the guise of joint Russia-Belarus military exercises. Russian troops have been noted far outside the announced exercise zone, however.
UK intelligence sources believe that Moscow has actionable plans for a blitzkrieg offensive in Ukraine.
However, Russia would need more than a million troops for an effective full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.
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