West bars Kiev from thinking about peace – Kremlin
The US and its allies are still interested in continued conflict in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday. Western nations effectively prevent the government in Kiev from even thinking about any potential peace talks, the official added.
When asked about potential reasons that have led German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron to no longer call Russian President Vladimir Putin, Peskov called this another sign suggesting that western leaders are not interested in achieving peace through dialogue and negotiations.
“At the moment, the western nations are actively betting on the continued war,” Peskov told the TV show ‘Moscow. Kremlin. Putin.’ on Russia’s Rossiya 1 channel. The position of the western nations –led by Washington– leads to a situation where they “allow Ukrainians neither to think nor talk about or discuss peace,” the Russian president’s spokesman added.
The Kremlin believes that “common sense” would eventually prevail and the sides will return to the negotiation table. “Now, the demand for pacifying the situation is low,” Peskov commented, adding that “we are sure … that the time for talks will come.”
Kiev will still have to “once again understand” all the demands put forward by Moscow before the talks could continue, the Kremlin spokesman pointed out. The Ukrainian government is well aware of Russia’s position, he said, adding that Kiev just needs to “sit down at the [negotiation] table” and “sign a document that has already been largely agreed.”
Moscow and Kiev started peace talks just four days after the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine in late February. The sides have held several rounds in person in Belarus and then continued the talks via a video link. In late March, the delegations from Russia and Ukraine met once again in Istanbul.
Since then, however, the talks have completely stalled, as the Ukrainian side has insisted it would only come back to the table when it was in a “stronger negotiating position.” In April, Putin accused Kiev of bringing the process to a deadlock. Peskov said at that time that Russia had provided Ukraine with a draft agreement and was awaiting a response.
In June, Ukraine’s top negotiator David Arakhamia suggested that Kiev believes it could achieve this “favorable position” by late August after it conducts “counteroffensive operations in certain areas.”
Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”
In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked.
