Lavrov assures that Moscow has never denied negotiations with Ukraine

July 26 () –

The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, has pointed out at a press conference, during his visit to Uganda, that Moscow has never denied the negotiations with Ukraine after the process has been paralyzed after the crossing of accusations of both parties.

According to the Russian Foreign Minister, the West – the United States, Great Britain and several European countries – has prohibited kyiv from negotiating with Russia on the basis of the agreements reached in March, as reported by the TASS news agency.

The Russian foreign minister recalled that Moscow accepted the negotiation proposal at the start of Russia’s military operation on Ukrainian territory, and on March 29 the consultations reached “a very interesting stage”, when kyiv presented a draft agreement on peace and Russia supports it.

“I said in an interview a few days ago that Russia is not prejudiced against negotiations with Ukraine. Immediately, even a few hours passed, when the State Department spokesman (Ned Price) said that the United States believes that now is not the time for Ukraine to hold talks with Russia,” he explained.

In this sense, he has invited citizens to draw “their own conclusions”. “Ask your American colleagues what the reason is,” Lavrov concluded.

The last talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations to try to reach a ceasefire agreement on the war unleashed on February 24 took place on March 29.

The president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, addressed the members of both delegations to advocate for a ceasefire and defend that a breakthrough in this regard would pave the way for a face-to-face meeting between the presidents of Russia and Ukraine, Vladimir Putin and Volodimir Zelensky, respectively.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a meeting with his ally and President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, warned in April of a stalemate in the negotiations with Ukraine due to the fact that the Ukrainian authorities failed to comply with what was agreed in Istanbul.