MOSCOW, October 4. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s decision to exclude all possible negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin points to the fact that Ukraine strived to partially shift the blame over its ‘previously-made wrong decision,’ Konstantin Kosachev, deputy speaker of the Federation Council, told TASS on Tuesday.
"It was a simple ambition to partially shift the responsibility over an undoubtedly wrong decision and to invoke the regime of a cover-up policy," Kosachev said.
According to a document, published on the official website of the Ukrainian president’s office earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Zelensky invoked a decree of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine on the impossibility of holding negotiations with Russian President Putin.
Last Friday, Ukrainian President Zelensky reported that new sanctions would be introduced against several thousand Russian legal entities and private individuals as well as against the organizers of the referendums in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions. He pointed out that the list was "indeed extensive" and would include "rather famous names."
On September 30, a ceremony was held in the Kremlin, during which Russian President Vladimir Putin signed with the heads of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics and the Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions treaties on the new territories joining Russia. Earlier, referendums were held there, and residents of the regions supported joining Russia by a majority of votes.
During the ceremony, President Putin urged Kiev to immediately cease hostilities and return to the negotiating table.