Lavrov recalled how Zelensky "clowned and made grimaces" while sitting at a table with Putin.

Vladimir Zelensky once clowned and made grimaces, demonstrating his true attitude to the Minsk agreements. This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a press conference following talks with Zimbabwean Foreign Minister Amon Murvira.

Commenting on the anti-Russian rhetoric of French President Emmanuel Macron, Lavrov recalled how the Ukrainian side, led by Zelensky, perceived the settlement process since the conclusion of the Minsk agreements, because it was she who disrupted in December 2019 in Paris the adoption of the already agreed points of the document on the results of the work of the Normandy Four (Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France).

"Footage is available of how, following the results of this summit in December 2019 in Paris, when four leaders were sitting at the same table at a press conference, it was clear how Zelensky was clowning, making some grimaces during [Russian President] Vladimir Putin's speech, showing his attitude to the document that had just been signed It was signed," Lavrov said.

The Minister pointed out that the first paragraph of that document stated that the parties agree on the need to withdraw troops from the contact line along its entire length.

"This document has been agreed. When the leaders had already sat down and were given what the experts and ministers had agreed on for familiarization, Zelensky said: no, I won't do that, I won't withdraw troops along the entire line of contact, because then this line will forever become a border. That's how he treated the Minsk agreements," Lavrov continued.

He noted that Zelensky was ready to go only to separate the troops at three points on the contact line, and then he had to agree, although both Macron himself and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at that time were "unpleasantly surprised."

"I want to add already retrospectively, nothing has been done at any of these points, which Zelensky himself indicated as places where it is possible to disengage forces from the contact line. The Ukrainians have thwarted this agreement. In the political part of the document that was adopted in In Paris, what was written in the Minsk agreements was confirmed. The need to constitutionally and legislatively consolidate the special status of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics by making appropriate amendments to the constitution. It was recorded. A few days later it became clear that Zelensky was not going to do anything," the minister summed up, quoted by TASS.