MOSCOW, October 9. /TASS/. The Western nations are not interested in peace in Ukraine, Director of the Second Department of CIS Countries of the Russian Foreign Ministry Aleksey Polischuk said in an interview with TASS.
Russia has never rejected negotiations with Ukraine and Moscow responded to the Kiev’s request to start the negotiating process in late February, the diplomat said. "It [Kiev] was ready to record the permanent neutrality, the non-nuclear and the non-bloc status, demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine in exchange for security guarantees. When the draft agreement started taking the acceptable outline, Kiev interrupted the negotiating process. Obviously on orders of Western sponsors that do not need peace," Polischuk noted.
The position of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who earlier banned talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, is "absolutely self-defeating," the Department Director said. "It has no common sense and does not meet interests of Ukraine. The more talks are postponed, the farther on their starting point is shifting, and not in Kiev’s favor," the diplomat added.