but now that zelensky takes that from the table, it is clear vladimir putin is attacking them for other reasons, which is to say he looks to build a renewed russian empire, eliminate ukraine as a people and a state. russia“s foreign minister, sergei lavrov has been speaking today. translation: the crisis in ukraine, the conflict inside ukraine, - has been brewing so long. all these years, that a huge number of problems have built up. therefore just meeting and exchanging views on what you thing and i think, that would just be counter—productive now. we have to make sure that ukraine stops assimilating itself with the west, with nato in the military sense. with threats to the russian federation, physical, military threats to the russian federation. both the demilitarisation and the denazification of ukraine are an essential component of the agreements that we are trying to achieve.