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Head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergey Naryshkin. Photo/REUTERS
MOSCOW – Russia’s spy chief Sergey Naryshkin said Ukraine could not engage in peace talks with Moscow because the United States (US) and its allies forbade it.
“The rulers of the Ukrainian regime abroad will not allow the (Ukrainian) document to take off,” Naryshkin told Tass on Tuesday.
He pointed to the negotiations that took place between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul at the end of March, when “certain basic agreements were reached”.
“But people in Washington, people in London, are telling their counterparts in Kiev: ‘No, (should be) no peace talks, no peace. We have already paid you several tens of billions. We’ve invested in you; we will continue to pump money and weapons, and your job is simple, go and fight’,” Naryshkin said.
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The Ukrainian government then swiftly backtracked on all the promises it had made in Istanbul, with the sudden change of mood coming shortly after then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Kiev.
Russia and Ukraine have not sat behind the negotiating table since then, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky even signing a decree formally banning him from speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Zelensky is now promoting a planned UN-hosted international summit in New York on February 24, the anniversary of the launch of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.
The event, in which a resolution to the conflict will be discussed without Moscow, is expected to focus on a 10-point “peace plan” previously outlined by Kiev, which among other things calls for Russia to withdraw to its Ukrainian-claimed borders, pay reparations and submit to a war crimes tribunal.
Moscow has rejected Zelensky’s proposal, saying Ukraine refuses to take into account the realities on the ground and actually shows Kiev’s reluctance to find a solution to the crisis.
However, Putin and other Russian officials have repeatedly stated that Moscow is ready for dialogue, but in its own way, one of which is that Ukraine recognizes the status of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye as part of Russia.
Earlier this week, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Second CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) Department, Aleksey Polishchuk, indicated that if negotiations between the two sides finally took place, they would likely talk to each other face to face as “Western mediators often pursue their goals. themselves and try to influence the course of the negotiations… for their own political and economic interests.”
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