The top Russian diplomat said that even before the start of his campaign, Vladimir Zelensky said that those who live in Ukraine and consider themselves linked to Russian culture and the Russian language should "get out and move to the territory of Russia"

MOSCOW, September 17. /TASS/. Given the Kiev regime's inability to guarantee equal rights for all its people, it cannot represent the interests of Crimea, Donbass and Novorossiya, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a round table for foreign ambassadors dedicated to the Ukrainian settlement.

"When talking about territorial integrity, it is important to keep in mind the unified consolidated opinion of the international community, which no one has ever questioned in discussions. The 1970 Declaration [on Principles of International Law] confirms the inviolability of territorial integrity and political unity, but only of those states that respect the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples and which have governments representing, without distinction of race, religion or skin color, all the people living in the relevant territory. It is obvious that the Kiev regime, which sent so-called 'friendship trains' with armed militants to Crimea, then bombed Donbass, burned people alive in Odessa, and carried out ethnic cleansing, cannot, and then could not, represent the population of the lands in question," he said.

Lavrov said that even before the start of his campaign, Vladimir Zelensky said that those who live in Ukraine and consider themselves linked to Russian culture and the Russian language should "get out and move to the territory of Russia." "How can such a regime, whose leader says such things, represent the population he is talking about, claiming that this is the territory of Ukraine? This is a gross violation of the 1970 Declaration, and it should be perceived as such," he said. "Not to mention that Russian is legally prohibited in Ukraine in the fields of education, mass media, culture, and everyday communication in general. If you come to a store in Ukraine and speak Russian, they may refuse to service you, or even turn you over to the police."

The minister added that Ukraine had recently passed a law banning the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC).

"The UN Charter requires respect for human rights without distinction, race, gender, language or religion. Russian is the only language in the world and Ukraine is the only country that has banned a foreign language. There is no other language that is legally prohibited in any country. So draw conclusions as it relates to the requirements to comply with the UN Charter," Lavrov said.

In recent years, Ukraine has been actively pursuing a policy of disbanding the UOC, including encouraging the transfer of its religious communities to the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church of Ukra, created in 2018 from two schismatic religious structures. The local authorities deprive the UOC of the right to lease land for churches, and with their encouragement, supporters of the schismatic OCU forcibly seize temples of the canonical church and attack priests. Law enforcement agencies are accusing the priests of the UOC of treason and other crimes, and sanctions are also being imposed against them.

Although at least 5-6 million residents remain parishioners of the UOC in the country, according to the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience of Ukraine (SSUESS), last summer a law was passed initiated by Zelensky to ban the UOC. Since May 24 of this year, the authorities have received the right to permanently ban religious organizations of the UOC through the courts. On August 29, the SSUESS filed a lawsuit to ban the UOC.

Kiev regime cannot represent interests of Crimea, Donbass, Novorossiya -- Lavrov