Russian foreign minister slams what he calls American double standard when it demands Russia withdraw from the East Ukraine region but recognizes Israel sovereignty over Golan Heights captured from Syria in the 1967 Six Day War

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Saturday, slammed what he called American double standards comparing the Russian control of the Eastern Ukraine region of Donbas to the Statement of the U.S. State Department on the importance of the Golan Heights, captured from Syrian in the 1967 Six Day War, to Israel's security.

Lavrov was speaking to journalists who asked him about remarks made by the U.S. ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield last week ahead of the UN General Assembly. 

The ambassador said UN resolutions including those respecting the sovereignty of member states must be complied with. She then briefed the press that the Biden administration's position on the Golan Heights remained unchanged after then-president Donald Trump recognized Israel's sovereignty over the region in 2019.

Lavrov read a statement to reporters claiming Donbas is very important to Russian security. " "As long as Zelensky is in power in Ukraine, as long as NATO is present in Ukraine, militia groups backed by NATO, the Zelensky regime itself - all of these pose a significant security threat to Russia, and as a practical matter, the control of the Donbas in that situation, I think, remains of real importance to Russia's security. Legal questions are something else. And over time, if the situation were to change in Ukraine, that's something we'd look at. But we are nowhere near that," Lavrov said.