All news

Normalization of Russia-Ukraine relations will take time and effort - Kremlin

As a negative example Sergei Ivanov cited the Ukrainian prime minister’s plan to build a wall along the border with Russia

MOSCOW, September 21. /ITAR-TASS/. Normalization of relations between Russia and Ukraine will take time and effort but it is inevitable, Sergei Ivanov, the head of the Russian president’s administration said in an interview with the Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily that will be published on Monday.

“It will not happen by itself, it will take time and effort,” he said. “We must create conditions for that.” As a negative example he cited the Ukrainian prime minister’s plan to build a wall along the border with Russia. “I think this wall will make it impossible to resume any relations,” he said.

“I am confident: there will be no wall in the long run,” Ivanov stressed. “Life is not the same as rhetoric. Our people don’t consider Ukrainians as aliens, they don’t take them as foreigners.”

He said it was a pity that the serious humanitarian situation, including around Ukrainian refugees, “was of no concern for anyone but Russia.” “We shall help suffering people who were forced to leave their homes, if we must,” he said.