MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in remarks published on Friday that he saw no objective signs that Ukraine or the West were ready for peace talks despite all their increasingly loud statements about the need for such talks.
“Despite the increasingly loud talk about the need for peace talks, there are objectively no practical actions indicating that Kyiv and the West are really ready for them,” Lavrov said, according to a transcript of questions and answers he had received from reporters posted on his ministry’s website.
“On the contrary, Western military supplies to the Ukrainian armed forces are continuing, ultimatums to Russia are being worked out, there is a (Ukrainian) legal ban on negotiations, and the issue of the legitimacy of the Ukrainian authorities is not being resolved,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in December that Russia had no conditions to start talks with Ukraine and was ready to negotiate with anyone, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
But he said Zelenskiy, whose term was due to expire last year but was extended due to martial law, would need to be re-elected for Moscow to consider him a legitimate signatory to any deal to ensure it was legally watertight.
Kyiv says there is no question about Zelenskiy’s legitimacy and that Russian talk on the issue is designed to undermine his authority.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
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