Ukraine and Russia have suspended peace negotiations. Moscow claims the Ukrainians withdrew from the talks, while Kyiv assures that the Russians fail to perceive the developments adequately.
This was stated by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Andriy Rudenko, as quoted by RIA Novosti, and adviser to the head of the Ukrainian President’s Office, Mykhailo Podoliak in a comment.
According to Rudenko, Ukraine has in fact withdrawn from the negotiation process, so it is not proceeding in any way. The official assures that Moscow also received no response from Kyiv to its draft agreement.
Podoliak confirmed that the negotiation process had indeed been suspended. He explains that, firstly, Russia still doesn’t quite adequately perceive the events taking place in the world in connection with the invasion, and secondly, the Kremlin wants to use the talks as part of its propaganda for domestic consumers. “Hence all these blackmail comments in the public space about the negotiations,” Podoliak said.
“Russia probably wants to see all the packages of international economic sanctions in place and finally understand the real ‘combat capability’ of its army, as well as lose what’s left of the reputation of a kind of world monster to be feared. Okay. The strategic goal is clear. There is no point in preventing the fall of this ‘empire with a barbaric interior,’” Podoliak said. He added that, “on a serious note,” the mandate to continue negotiations for the Ukrainian negotiating team is agreed only by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Podoliak also recalled that the process of resuming negotiations will depend on the evacuation of Ukraine’s defenders from Azovstal, the situation in Kherson, “and so on.”
Recently, President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that Ukraine would withdraw from any negotiation process with Russia if “our people in Mariupol are killed, if a pseudo-referendum is held in Kherson.”
