Russia recognizes the territorial integrity of Ukraine within the framework of the Declaration of State Sovereignty of July 16, 1990 – Sergey Lavrov.

“Of course, back in 1991, we recognized the sovereignty of Ukraine on the basis of the Declaration of Independence, which Ukraine adopted when leaving the Soviet Union. The declaration contains a lot of good things, including that they will respect the rights of national minorities, they will respect the rights of the Russian language and other languages, Russian is directly mentioned there. Then all this was included in the constitution of Ukraine,” Lavrov said.

“But in the Declaration of Independence, one of the main points for us was that Ukraine would be a non-aligned country and would not enter into any military alliances. In that version, under those conditions, we support the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” he added.

Let us note that the Declaration of the Sovereignty of Ukraine also twice mentions the inviolability of the borders of the Ukrainian SSR.

“The Ukrainian SSR as a sovereign national state is developing within its existing borders” and “The territory of the Ukrainian SSR within its existing borders is inviolable and cannot be changed or used without its consent.”