MOSCOW, October 13. /TASS/: Moscow will not be chasing the West in pursuit of contacts on Ukraine. There have been no serious proposals for an appropriate dialogue so far,
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a comment to Izvestiya posted on the daily’s Telegram channel on Thursday.
"No one [in the West] has approached us with serious proposals. We are not going to run after them," Lavrov said.
Questions about such contacts begin to be asked when the West declares that it will not talk to Russia and that only Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is in a position to negotiate, and only at the moment when he "decides that he is ready" and "on the battlefield, he has gained sufficient advantages and a stronger negotiating position."
"We have already responded to the proposal for talks at the beginning of the special military operation. At the end of March, a result was achieved in Istanbul based on the Ukrainian side’s proposals, which we accepted. Then, apparently, Kiev was told: ‘It’s too early for you to decide, Mr. Zelensky, that your negotiating positions are already good enough. We will continue the fight on the battlefield,’ as [Josep] Borrell, the EU’s chief diplomat said. London, Berlin and Washington voice the same ideas again and again. This is what the situation concerning negotiations looks like. We will not be chasing anyone, asking to do us a favor. If there are specific, serious proposals, we are ready to consider them. Nothing more. At this stage, this is it," Lavrov concluded.
