Moscow's call for talks two months late, freezing conflict now impossible, says Ukrainian diplomat
Bezsmertnyi told Radio NV that the attempts by Moscow to persuade Kyiv to negotiate have only one goal: "to create a pause, stretched in time so that the Kremlin can regain strength and continue to implement its plans."
"In this case, such rhetoric is late by up to two months, objectively speaking," the Ukrainian diplomat said.
Read also: Ukraine’s six key conditions for peace talks with Putin’s Russia
“It was on the verge of happening when the drama around the besieged Azov unit at the Azovstal plant in Mariupol was unfolding.”
Bezsmertnyi said the Russian authorities "have problems with objectivity is assessing situations."
"On the one hand, they seem to determine the tactics absolutely correctly– they escalate the situation to the highest degree using various information and psychological operations against Ukraine, but they cannot catch the moment when Kyiv, let's say, has weakened and might conduct some kind of dialogue."
Bezsmertnyi said this is due to the fact that a totalitarian regime had difficulty in understanding a democratic society.
Read also: War against Ukraine will likely end with Russia's political capitulation, says military expert
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sept. 2 that there is no chance of talks between Ukraine and Russia at this time, as the Kremlin had chosen to resolve everything by force.
Recently, the Ukrainian leader ruled out the possibility of negotiations with the aggressor country. He said that there will be no dialogue until Russia stops shelling Ukrainian cities and killing Ukrainians.
In late June, adviser to the head of the Presidential Office Mykhailo Podolyak said that a peace agreement with Russia would be possible when Ukraine restores its territorial integrity.
The head of the negotiating delegation with Russia, David Arakhamia, said that Ukraine would be able to resume negotiations with Russia when Kyiv strengthens its forces through a counter-offensive and when the Russian military returns to the positions as of Feb. 23.
Bezsmertnyi also said Russia's war against Ukraine could not be transformed into a “frozen conflict.”
Read also: War to end when Ukraine regains 1991 borders, might happen next year – intelligence chief
"This war in terms of its characteristics cannot be frozen,” he said.
“The pause we are talking about is aimed at accumulating strength, and the continuation of the war. On the other hand, if the pause is prolonged, a legal mechanism for bringing war criminals to justice – namely by the Ukrainian side – would be instantly activated.”
He said that the current situation "is impossible (for the Kremlin) in terms of the classical approach to freezing," as in Transnistria or Nagorno-Karabakh.
He said talks might even result in an aggravation of the conflict.
“Even during the Minsk process they constantly resorted to disruptions, pauses, then raised the temperature. Some call it raising the stakes. This is a common tactic of the dictatorial machine to get a pause, exploiting the diplomatic theme, and then resort to aggravation.”
Back in May, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine would not accept a frozen conflict as a consequence of the war with Russia.
Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
