Situation in Donbass / Negotiations between Putin and Zelensky

1 Russia — Turkey

The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov commented on the information about the sale of attack drones from Turkey to Ukraine. He stated that Russia strongly encourages all the responsible countries, including Turkey, to analyze the situation and the common warlike statements from Kiev. Such action will warn them against the indirectly supporting of those militaristic plans. Sergei Lavrov also stated the following: «What exactly are the USA doing via their military ships and personnel, who constantly organize some kind of NATO activities in Ukraine, thousands of kilometers away from the USA, is a question that remains unanswered».

2 Russia — Ukraine

The ’Reuters’ reported that Kiev has sent a request for a conversation between the Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelenskiy, and the Russian president Vladimir Putin. The ’Reuters’ quoted the press secretary of the Ukrainian president — Yulia Mendel. It was noted that the answer has yet to been received, but Kiev hopes that there will be no refusal from the dialogue. The ’Reuters’ reported that the topic of the negotiations may be the situation in Donbass. Yulia Mendel stated on air of the ’Dom’ TV channel that Ukraine doesn’t plan to start an offensive operation in Donbass. She added that only negotiations can lead to peace. The press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, stated that he doesn’t know about any recent requests from Kiev for a conversation between the presidents of Russia and Ukraine. He added that the Russian president «always has something to say about the easing of the tensions, and about the prevention a potential war».

3 Iran

The Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, accused Israel of being involved in the incident at the Natanz nuclear power distribution grid on Sunday. There were no casualties and no environmental pollution. The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Said Khatibzadeh, stated that Iran will take revenge on Israel for the Natanz attack when it deems it necessary. On Sunday, ’The New York Times’ reported while citing their sources that the incident was caused by an explosion organized by Israel. ’The New York Times’ claimed that «the power outage appears to have been caused by a planned explosion». The Iranian Vice President and also the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, stated that the incident at Natanz didn’t slow down the uranium enrichment process. «In the shortest possible time, the facility in Natanz will continue to work with an increase in the productivity by 50%» — he concluded.

4 Syria

The recent report from the OPCW’s investigation and identification team claimed that in February of 2018, the Syrian Air Force dropped a chlorine bomb on the terrorist-held city of Seraqib, in the Idlib province. «There are reasonable grounds to believe that on 4th of February, 2018, a Syrian Air Force helicopter dropped at least one chlorine container at the eastern part of the city of Seraqib» — the ’TASS’ agency quoted the statement. «The container exploded and dispersed chlorine over a large area, resulting in 12 casualties» — the report stated. According to the Investigation and Identification Team of the OPCW — no-one was killed. However, the affected people had symptoms of chemical poisoning.

5 Russia — Syria

The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated during a press conference after the negotiations with the Egyptian Foreign Minister, Sameh Shukri, that Russia expects that the issue of restoration of the Syrian membership in the League of Arab States will be resolved swiftly. He added that Russia considers it counter-productive and short-sighted to fund the refugee camps in Syria, instead of creating conditions for them to return home. Sergei Lavrov stated during an interview to the Egyptian newspaper ’Al-Ahram’ that many Arab countries know how important it is to restore the ties with Damascus. «We fully support such readiness» — he concluded.

6 Russia — Yemen

The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated in an interview to the Egyptian newspaper ’Al-Ahram’ that Russia intends to continue to support the efforts of the UN Secretary General’s special envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths. Russia will also encourage the President of Yemen, Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, and the leadership of the Yemeni rebel movement ’Ansar Allah’ to show a constructive approach, and try to compromise while considering their differences. Sergey Lavrov added that one of the topics of his recent talks with the leadership of a number of Gulf countries, which took place from 9th of 11th of March, was the resolution of the conflict in Yemen. Constantine Reztsov, specially for the ANNA NEWS.