MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/. No serious negotiations on security guarantees are possible as long as NATO instructors and mercenaries remain in Ukraine and unless the true situation on the country’s territory is recognized, a high-ranking Russian diplomat told TASS in an interview.
"It will be premature to launch any serious negotiations on security guarantees in the context of Ukraine and the Euro-Atlantic region as long as weapons and funds are being pumped into [Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s] regime, as long as US and NATO servicemen/mercenaries/instructors remain in the country and unless certain practical developments on the ground are recognized," said Alexander Darchiyev, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's North American Department. "The ball is now in the US court."
The diplomat said Moscow had made "an honest attempt to come to terms" a year ago, "by putting on table two legally binding documents" on security guarantees with the United States and NATO. However, everything that Moscow heard in response was "categorical and arrogant ‘no,’" he said.
"As it turned out just a while ago, sweet-sounding Western assurances of having no aggressive intentions whatsoever and of being committed to the Minsk agreements disguised the effort to rearm the Ukrainian military and concentrate forces for retaking Donbass and destroying it," Darchiyev continued. "Under those circumstances, we no longer trust the United States and the collective West".