Will not stop military operations in Ukraine for peace negotiations: Russian FM Sergey Lavrov
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said President Vladimir Putin had ordered the suspension of military operations in Ukraine during the first round of talks with Kyiv, but insisted that the Moscow holder had changed since then.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday eliminated all the possibilities of a ceasefire in Ukraine, said Moscow was open to continue peace talks with Kyiv but that did not mean war – called Russia as “military operation”, will be stopped. Speaking in an interview with Russian country television, Lavrov added that he saw no reason why the conversation should not continue with Ukraine.
The Russian Foreign Minister said that talks with Ukraine did not develop as fast as they wanted, and accused the west try to thwart negotiations by increasing allegations of war crimes against the Russian army in the city of Bucha Ukraine – which categorically rejected on all occasions. In particular, at least 20 people in civilian clothing along with more than 100 mass graves found in Bucha earlier this month, which has claimed Ukraine is a war crime conducted with Russian soldiers.
Direct renewal of the Russian-Ukrainian war here
Lavor further stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered the suspension of military operations in Ukraine during the first round of talks – which was held in Belarus, but insisted that the Moscow holder had changed since then.
After convincing that the Ukrainian party did not plan to retaliate, said Lavrov, a decision was made that “during the next talk, there would be no pause (in military action) during the final agreement was not achieved”.
Last week, Lavrov accused Kyiv’s negotiator departing from the demands they had committed to face-to-face talks in Turkey on March 29. He said Ukraine presented a draft peace agreement to Russia consisting of “unacceptable by Kyiv. Not interested in ending the battle. Kyiv, however, rejected the accusation by saying that it was a tactic to divert the attention of the war of the Russian forces.
In peace talks in Turkey, Moscow promised to drastically reduce its operations from around the capital of Ukraine and Chernihiv. Ukrainian negotiator David Arachhamia also said the meeting between Putin and his colleague Ukraine Volodymyr Zelskyy looked promising.
However, when Bucha’s murder was found only four days after talks and with a recent attack at the Kramatorsk train station which killed at least 50 people and injured more than 100 others, negotiations had been stopped.
The Kremlin has repeatedly rejected the possibility of a meeting of two leaders, emphasizing that the establishment of Russia in Crimea and Donbas remained unchanged.
Meanwhile, British intelligence said on Monday that Ukrainian forces had pushed back many Russian attacks in the east of the country. Zelskyy, on the other hand, said that tens of thousands of Russian troops were preparing for a new attack.
