MOSCOW, April 22. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that he briefed the Kazakh side in detail on progress in the Russian special operation in Ukraine and shared opinions of the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations, which proceed very slowly.
"Of course, at the meeting of the Central Asian quintet with the Russian side and then at today’s negotiations we considered the situation in Ukraine and around it. We briefed our counterparts in detail on progress in the special military operation for protecting the people of Donbass, and demilitarizing and denazifying Ukraine. We shared our opinion of the slow progress in the Russian-Ukrainian negotiations," Lavrov told a news conference on Friday following talks with Kazakhstan’s Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tleuberdi.
"We have no doubts that our allies and strategic partners in Central Asia have a clear understanding of the root causes of what is happening in Europe, in the Euro-Atlantic region and in Eurasia, as well as the geopolitical dimension of the current situation," Lavrov said.
The Russian-Ukrainian talks have been underway since February 28. The Russian delegation is led by Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky. Several meetings took place in Belarus, then the sides continued discussions by video link. On March 29, a face-to-face round of talks was held in Istanbul. On April 12, Russian President Vladimir Putin told journalists that by moving away from the agreements reached in Turkey, Kiev steered this process into a dead end.
On April 20, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow had sent to Kiev a draft document containing clearly-worded proposals and was waiting for a reply. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the draft had been sent to Kiev on April 15.
