“Start with Moscow”: Ukraine Slams Russia’s “Denazification” Demand
Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sharply rebuked Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s latest demands for a peace deal, calling them a continuation of the Kremlin’s aggressive imperialism and urging allies to impose new sanctions on Moscow, The Gaze reports.
Speaking on Saturday, Lavrov laid out Russia’s preconditions for any resolution to the war, including the so-called “demilitarization” and “denazification” of Ukraine, the lifting of all lawsuits and sanctions against Russia, and the return of Russian state assets frozen abroad.
In response, MFA spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi took to social media to denounce the statement. “Proper ‘denazification’ must begin from Moscow,” he wrote on X, citing Russia’s own record of ethnic discrimination.
“Given its treatment of other ethnic groups—Azerbaijanis and the rest of the South Caucasus, Central Asia, Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars, and others.”
Tykhyi said Lavrov’s rhetoric makes clear that “Russia rejects peace efforts and instead resorts to 2022-type ultimatums.”
The Ukrainian diplomat called on international partners to “hit these Russian ‘denazifiers’ with new, tough sanctions without delay to bring them back to reality.”
Lavrov’s remarks echo the justification used by the Kremlin in 2022 at the outset of its full-scale invasion, framing the assault as a campaign to cleanse Ukraine of what it falsely called “Nazi elements.”
The narrative, long debunked by historians and independent observers, has been used to justify everything from war crimes to ethnic cleansing.
Read more on The Gaze: How Russian Propaganda Works at Home and Abroad