Lavrov recalled that negotiations with the Ukrainian side already took place in March and April last year, but as a result the West did not want the confrontation to end.
“So now, when they talk to us about negotiations, [президент РФ Владимир] Putin commented on this, he said very clearly: yes, we are ready to negotiate. [по Украине]”But we will not consider any ceasefire proposal, because we considered it once, but you deceived us,” Lavrov said.
The head of Russia’s foreign policy department is confident that the West banned Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky from participating in the negotiation process, and decided that since the agreement was reached so quickly after the first negotiation attempt (we are talking about April 2022), then “Let’s exhaust even more” Russia.
Last year, Zelensky signed a decree declaring the impossibility of negotiating with Putin. The Russian leader, in turn, has repeatedly stated that Moscow never abandoned them, but kyiv actually banned itself from entering into negotiations, which Putin says is a somewhat unusual approach.
