There are no signs of Ukraine’s readiness to launch peace talks, with Kyiv instead issuing “bellicose ultimatums,” a Russian official said.

In an interview with Russian news portal lenta.ru, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin recalled that Russia and Ukraine held several rounds of talks last year and agreed on a draft of a peace agreement last March in Istanbul.

According to him, there were some 17 versions of the draft, the last of which was sent to Ukraine on April 15 and remains unanswered.

“Apparently, Washington and London, seeing the prospect of Russia and Ukraine reaching mutually acceptable agreements, forbade (Ukraine’s President) Volodymyr Zelenskyy from continuing negotiations. Later, on Sept. 30, he issued a decree on the ‘impossibility’ of negotiations with the president of Russia (Vladimir Putin),” he noted.

Galuzin said the US and its NATO allies oppose peace because they have invested too much money in Ukraine, which is for them “a tool” for weakening and isolating Russia, breaking the security architecture and preserving their hegemony.

The diplomat confirmed that the draft of the peace agreement suggested providing Ukraine with security guarantees, but guarantees may be ensured only in connection with other terms — neutrality, non-bloc and nuclear-free status, the recognition of new territorial realities, the rejection of the Nazi ideology, demilitarization, respect for the rights of national minorities and restoration of the status of the Russian language.

Commenting on the prospects of Ukraine’s accession to the European Union, Galuzin said the bloc changed over the past few years, turning from “an independent neutral economic integration association” into “a militarized international structure hostile to Russia.”

He recalled that in 2020, the EU established the Europe Peace Foundation to finance the war in Ukraine, train Ukraine’s soldiers, deliver arms and wage a “sanction war” against Russia.

“So membership in the EU today is joining an aggressive union, which in no way can serve as a guarantee of neutrality,” he stressed.

Galuzin said Russia did not “join” Ukraine’s territories as the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions “voluntarily became part of Russia.”

“Their residents independently and consciously made a free choice during the relevant referendums,” he said.

“As for returning to the negotiating table, as I have already said, the process was interrupted not by us, but by the Ukrainian side.

“To date, we do not see any signs that it (the Ukrainian side) has a serious attitude towards resolving the situation by peaceful means. Rather the opposite. Only populist and bellicose ultimatums sound from Kyiv,” he noted.

At the same time, Galuzin believes that many people in Ukraine want peace and the restoration of ties with Russia. He recalled that Zelenskyy won the presidential election based on promises to end the conflict in Donbas.

CURRENTPH NEWS SERVICE