"Only after exhausting all peaceful political means of regulating the Ukrainian crisis, we were forced to take military and military-technical measures to ensure the security of our state, protect our citizens and their compatriots, whose rights were consistently exterminated by the regime that came to power in Kiev as a result of an unconstitutional coup in 2014 ... Nevertheless, today we still prefer the methods of diplomacy," Lavrov told reporters during his visit to Turkmenistan.
Moscow believes that a long-term settlement of the Ukrainian conflict can be achieved through negotiations, the foreign minister added.
"For this to happen, it is necessary to focus on eliminating the root causes of this crisis," Lavrov said.