Russia wants list of weapons that will never be deployed in Ukraine, Lavrov says

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday said Russia is demanding Ukraine demilitarize and will write a specific list of which weapons the nation cannot possess.

Lavrov said in an interview with Al Jazeera that “specific types of strike weapons must be identified which will never be deployed in Ukraine and will not be created,” according to a text of the interview reviewed by Reuters.

The news comes amid a second round of talks between Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday. Russia is reportedly demanding the recognition of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine and also will also not give up the Crimean Peninsula, which the country seized in 2014.

On Tuesday, more than 100 diplomats at a United Nations conference in Geneva walked out on a speech from Lavrov, who accused Ukraine of human rights violations against Russian minorities, Al Jazeera reported.

Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine last week and on Wednesday claimed to have taken control of the first major city in the country, Kherson, which Ukrainian officials dispute.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has emerged as something of a war hero in the conflict, is pressing for a ceasefire and a withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine during the talks.

Zelenskyy has filed an application to include Ukraine in the European Union and has also alleged human rights abuses at the International Court of Justice.