Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dimitro Kuleba said Monday that accepting Russia’s «ultimatums» will not bring any peace, on the contrary, it will serve, he warned, for it to regain strength and «launch an even more brutal attack as soon as it can.»
At an extraordinary meeting of the European Union foreign ministers, in which he participated by videoconference, Kuleba has cut off speculations about a possible negotiation with Russia, affirming that, although «no other country in the world is as eager for peace» as Ukraine, they will not accept Moscow’s «ultimatums».
«We have not heard and will not hear any constructive proposals from Russia, let’s be realistic. Russia’s signals that it is supposedly open to negotiation is nothing but a smokescreen for continued aggression,» he has said.
In this regard, the head of Ukrainian diplomacy asserted that Russian President Vladimir Putin «does not want any compromise now» and made any attempt at negotiations conditional on the withdrawal of Russian troops from the internationally recognized Ukrainian territories.
«This will pave the way for the peace process,» stressed Kuleba, who asked his European partners to avoid «normalizing Russian aggression, including not allowing the Kremlin’s presence on European platforms.
«He is our colleague, but he is a war criminal and an accomplice to the crime against Ukraine,» Kuleba said in reference to his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. «This is a person who decided to violate all norms of international law and resolutely and zealously defends these violations all over the world,» he has emphasized.
Kuleba criticized the stance taken by some countries to consider Russia a state «as friendly» as Ukraine and stressed that «support for Ukrainians and tolerance for Russian criminals are incompatible.»
