Knight's move: Russian Foreign Minister suddenly states Russia never asked for negotiations with Ukraine

Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov suddenly said that Russia allegedly never asked for any negotiations with Ukraine, but at the same time is always ready to listen to the other side.

Source: Russian propaganda publication RIA Novosti with reference to Lavrov's press conference on 1 December

Quote from Lavrov: "We have never asked for any negotiations, but we have always said that if someone is interested in a negotiated solution, we are ready to listen."

Details: The Russian Foreign Minister said that it is "both funny and unpleasant" when Russia is "accused" that it "constantly asks for some kind of negotiations in order to buy time to gather additional forces for a special military operation [as Russia calls the war with Ukraine – ed.]".

According to Lavrov, "people are lying, they are outright lying" when they say that Russia is asking for negotiations.

Why it is important: Recently, the word "negotiations" has become more common in the information space of Russia.

The Kremlin even admitted that with attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure, they are trying to force Zelenskyy to negotiate.

Aleksandr Lukashenko, the self-proclaimed president of the Republic of Belarus, who supports Putin's policy and constantly spreads his narratives, also spoke about the need for negotiations.

A closed poll was conducted in Russia, according to which the percentage of Russians who are in favour of peace negotiations with Ukraine has drastically increased over the last few months. Now, about 55% of Russian citizens want negotiations.

Russia does not want to consider the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and separate territories of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts at the negotiations. At the same time, the invaders probably hoped that they would be able to break the Ukrainians with the lack of electricity and heating. The aggressor thought that the Ukrainians would push the authorities to agree to negotiations under such conditions.

But Ukraine does not agree to negotiations on Russia's terms, and Ukrainians do not go out to protest because of the lack of electricity.

Apparently, in connection with this, the aggressor country has now decided to change its tactics in the matter of negotiations.

Background:

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has outlined 10 proposals that comprise Ukraine’s "formula for peace" with Russia in his video address to the G20 summit in Bali.

• The Ukrainian authorities have reiterated that the transition to the stage of diplomatic negotiations is only possible under the conditions of the withdrawal of Russian troops from the borders of Ukraine established in 1991.

• The Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation has stated that Russia "does not accept preconditions regarding Ukraine", particularly the requirement to withdraw the Russian troops.

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