rt.com 20 Apr, 2022 13:43
HomeRussia & FSU
Russia sends proposal to Ukraine
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that Russia sent a draft agreement, adding that the “ball is in Ukraine’s court” now
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. © RIA/Sergey Guneev
Commenting on the stalled negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, President Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has told journalists that Russia forwarded to Ukraine a “
draft document” with concrete wording.
“
The ball is in their court, we are awaiting their response,” Peskov said on Wednesday. When asked if there was a deadline for Ukraine to respond, the Russian official indicated that it was up to Kiev. He noted, however, that the “
Ukrainians are not showing much inclination toward intensifying the negotiating process.”
On top of that, Peskov accused Ukraine of “
constantly moving away from their words, constantly changing them.” The Kremlin spokesperson concluded that this supposed lack of consistency “
is having very bad consequences in terms of the negotiations’ effectiveness.”
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Peskov’s remarks echo those made earlier on Wednesday by Russia’s Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, who said that Russia had lost trust in the Ukrainian negotiators. Speaking to Russia’s Rossiya 24 news channel, she used a Russian proverb ‘trust, but verify’ shortening it to just ‘verify,’ “
because we haven’t had any trust in these people for a long time.”
Zakharova went on to suggest that the Ukrainian government was not acting independently but was rather controlled from outside. She described the “
Kiev regime’s” handling of the talks as a “
circus,” saying that the Ukrainian authorities kept changing their position. Moreover, Zakharova suggested that Kiev’s participation in the negotiations could be nothing more than a diversionary tactic. She added, however, that Moscow was “
ready for that,” having seen where the Minsk agreement ended up.