Russian foreign minister sets condition under which Ukraine "has the right to exist"

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that Ukraine only "has the right to exist" if it renounces the territories where Russia staged sham referendums on annexation.

Source: Lavrov in an interview with NBC

Quote: "Ukraine has the right to exist, provided it must let people go. The people whom they call terrorists, whom they call species, and who during several referenda – in Novorossiya, in Donbas, in Crimea – decided that they belong to the Russian culture."

Details: Commenting on his own remark that Russia should also take part in security guarantees for Ukraine, Lavrov said: "I never said that Russia must have a veto on security guarantees. But security guarantees must be subject to consensus." 

He added, "If you believe that Russia being marginalised in the discussions on security issues on our borders, that this is something which is natural and normal, then I'm sorry, something is wrong with the philosophy of your channel."

Background: 

• On 23-27 September 2022, Russia staged sham referendums on joining Russia in the occupied areas of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, later declaring that between 87% and 99% had voted for annexation.
• A few days later, Putin signed an "agreement on accession to Russia" for the occupied Ukrainian territories and declared that henceforth their residents would be Russian citizens. 
• On 21 June 2025, Putin said Moscow insists that Kyiv recognise the results of the "referendums" held in autumn 2022 in the so-called "Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics" (essentially Russian-backed terror organisations), and in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts, after which the occupied Ukrainian territories were labelled "Russian".

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