Moscow pours cold water on Trump promise
US presidential hopeful Donald Trump's promise to put a swift end to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev is not realistic, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday. Ukraine does not appear to be ready for any kind of settlement, he added.
The former US president and current Republican frontrunner has vowed on several occasions to facilitate a peace deal “within days” if he wins the upcoming election. Trump claimed that he would be able to quickly convince both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to sit down and negotiate.
“I cannot believe in something that has not materialized,” Lavrov told a press conference on the sidelines of a UN Security Council meeting in New York, regarding whether he thinks Trump can deliver on his promise.
“We will see. I doubt that the Ukrainian side would be ready for any resolution,” the foreign minister added.
Lavrov claimed that Zelensky has already been “quite rude” in responding to the former president’s statements. The Ukrainian leader called Trump’s ideas “very dangerous,” saying he is worried that the Republican candidate is seeking to “make decisions on his own” without Russia or Ukraine.
There have been no contacts with the former US president on reaching a peace deal with Kiev, Moscow has said. Earlier this week, Lavrov said that Trump’s potential return to the White House is not likely to reverse the downward trend in relations between Russia and the US, as Washington has already destroyed all confidence-building mechanisms and is still obsessed with its own perceived “superiority” and “impunity” to change its view of Russia.
