You're reading: Peace process in southeast Ukraine thwarted by Kyiv’s calls for separatists to disarm – Lavrov

The conditions set by the Ukrainian government for total disarmament of the unlawful armed groups are impeding the peace process in the southeastern Ukraine, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

‘Regrettably, the Ukrainian leadership claims that a bilateral ceasefire is only possible in case of full compliance with Poroshenko’s peace plan. And as you know, the Ukrainian president stated in his peace plan, along with a call for a truce backed by us, that it should be accompanied by the surrender of weapons by militiamen, essentially, their capitulation,’ Lavrov said after talks at a ministerial level in Sofia on July 7.

‘This complication is still bringing very serious problems into the process that we are trying to support,’ the Russian minister said.