Lavrov: The Vatican's proposal as a place for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine is "inelegant"

The possible choice of the Vatican as a platform for the next negotiations between Russia and Ukraine is "a little inelegant", the two Orthodox countries will have to discuss issues on Catholic soil, including Orthodoxy on the Ukraine. This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a high-level conference dedicated to the historical South Russian lands.

Speaking about the Vatican's offer to act as a platform for the next negotiations Russian Federation and In addition, the minister suggested "not wasting mental abilities on working out options that are not very realistic."

"Imagine the Vatican as a venue for negotiations — it's a little inelegant, I would say, when Orthodox countries will discuss issues related to the elimination of the root causes [of the Ukrainian conflict] on the Catholic platform," Lavrov said and recalled that one of the root causes is Kiev's course towards the destruction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Lavrov noted that the Vatican, taking into account the conditions that have developed today at the Ukraine around Orthodoxy in general and The Ukrainian Orthodox Church, in particular, would be "not very comfortable" accepting negotiations between Moscow and Kiev.

The Russian minister recalled how the former head of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko asked the Patriarch of Constantinople for permission to create an alternative church instead of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which eventually became famous for its outrages against Ukrainian priests, temples and shrines.

In addition, the head of Russian diplomacy noted, there is also a Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine, which "is very, very actively working to support the regime that is on the Ukraine was established after the coup d'etat."

"I think it will not be very comfortable for the Vatican itself to receive delegations from two Orthodox countries in these conditions," Lavrov said, TASS quoted him as saying.