You're reading: Lavrov says talks the only way to find out if eastern regions want to be part of Ukraine

Only talks between the Ukrainian government and eastern Ukrainian regions can make it clear whether the eastern territories are willing to remain part of Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov argued on Aug. 27. 

“We are now convinced that everything possible must be done to ensure that they sit down at the negotiating table and start moving from an urgent ceasefire to trying to hear each other. Until they sit down we won’t be able to understand whether they will be able to live together or not,” Lavrov said at the Seliger 2014 youth forum.

“Unless a political dialogue is launched with the participation of all regions, we will never be able to understand whether it is realistic or unrealistic for the Ukrainians to reach an agreement. And when the current Kyiv authorities say, ‘We will start a dialogue but not before Donetsk and Luhansk lay down their arms, and if they don’t we’ll try to achieve our goals in a military way,’ it is an absolutely irresponsible attitude because when one says to people, ‘Surrender first, and then we’ll see what to do with you,’ it sparks a chain reaction,” the minister said.

“I’m sure that what has already been achieved in the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk consolidates these regions in their fight for what is most important – for the right to live in those lands the way their fathers and grandfathers did, and live the way they want to live as well, speaking the Russian language, providing their children with education in the Russian language, electing their own governors and legislative assemblies, being able to get the money from taxes on economic activities that are carried out on their territory, being able to maintain economic, cultural and purely human contacts with their relatives and friends in the Russian Federation and other countries. That is the main thing,” Lavrov said.