Russia is eager to respond to French President Emmanuel Macron’s call to begin a peace process in Ukraine, but doesn’t see a path to the negotiating table at the moment, Kremlin press-secretary Dmitry Peskov has said.
Macron told France Inter radio on Monday that he believed that efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev needed to be accelerated in the coming weeks.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who briefly met the French President at the G20 summit in Indonesia on Tuesday, said Macron also confirmed his willingness to continue talking to President Vladimir Putin in an effort to work out a way to stop the fighting.
Asked to comment on Macron’s push for negotiations, Peskov said: “Of course, but we don’t really see the negotiating table.”
“...Ukraine, both de facto and de jure can’t and doesn’t want to negotiate,” the spokesman said. Because of this, Russia’s plan will continue to be carried out “through the continuation of a special military operation” in Ukraine, he said.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also said during the G20 summit that he would continue talking to Putin to find a solution to the Ukrainian crisis. Such contacts were “important,” Scholz added.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky addressed the summit by video, during which he said he was “convinced now is the time when the Russian destructive war must and can be stopped.” However, he insisted that Ukraine “shouldn’t be offered compromises with its sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence” in order to achieve peace.
Peskov said that Zelensky’s address “absolutely confirms” the unwillingness of Kiev to engage in any negotiations with Moscow, while Lavrov said its conditions were “invariably unrealistic.” He warned that the longer Kiev rejects negotiations, the harder it’ll be for the sides to find common ground.
The Russian foreign minister said Zelensky was “not listening to any advice from the West,” allegedly referring to recent reports that Washington has been privately pushing Kiev to drop its uncompromising rejection of the peace process with Moscow.