The UK, Germany, and France have failed to subdue Russia, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Grushko has said
Ukraine’s European backers have failed to defeat or weaken Russia, yet still want to prolong the conflict, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Grushko has said.
The diplomat argued that Britain, France, and Germany were not actually interested in achieving peace between Moscow and Kiev.
“These countries continue aiming to drag out the conflict. Stripping away the diplomatic language that cloaks their political actions, their primary objectives are Russia’s defeat on the battlefield, its international isolation, economic strangulation, and regime change. All of these efforts have ended in a complete fiasco,” Grushko told the news agency TASS on Monday.
Grushko added that the ultimate goal of the EU was to “weaken Russia as much as possible.”
The German government has threatened to impose additional sanctions on Russia if Moscow refuses to accept a 30-day unconditional ceasefire proposed by Ukraine and backed by the EU. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has dismissed “the language of ultimatums” as unacceptable.
On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to hold direct negotiations with Ukraine without preconditions in Türkiye on May 15. Vladimir Zelensky has stated he was ready to meet Putin on Thursday, but only if Moscow first agrees to a truce.
The previous round of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations broke down in the spring of 2022 when both sides accused each other of making unrealistic demands. Putin said at the time that Kiev’s negotiators initially agreed to some of Moscow’s terms before abruptly leaving the talks.
Moscow has opposed Ukraine’s 30-day truce demand on the grounds that it would use the window to rearm and regroup its military. Putin has also insisted that Kiev must halt its mobilization drive and stop receiving weapons from abroad.
Putin has maintained that Ukraine must abandon its plans to join NATO and renounce its claims to Crimea and four other regions that voted in 2022 to join Russia.
