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- Nov 6, 2010
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Russia is prepared for NATO to continue to fight in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday. Several days earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg rejected any moves to “freeze” the conflict, despite mounting Ukrainian losses.Defense Ministry announced on June 20 that up to 30,000 Ukrainian soldiers will be trained under the EU Military Assistance Mission for Ukraine (EUMAM).
In an interview with Germany’s Welt am Sonntag published on Sunday, Stoltenberg declared that “peace cannot mean freezing the conflict and accepting a deal that is dictated by Russia.” Stoltenberg added that “only Ukraine can define the conditions that are acceptable,” an explicit endorsement of Kiev’s vow to drive Russian forces back to pre-conflict borders and seize the Russian territory of Crimea.
“If NATO, through the mouth of Stoltenberg, once again declares that they are against freezing, as they say, the conflict in Ukraine, then they want to fight,” Lavrov told a press conference. “Well, let them fight, we are ready for this, we have long understood the goals of NATO in the situation around Ukraine, which have been formed for many years.”