MINSK, May 18. /TASS/. Negotiations on the situation in Ukraine fully depend on Washington and not on Kiev, Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of Russia’s State Duma (the lower house of parliament), told reporters on Thursday.

"Neither [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky nor Ukraine in general will come to the negotiating table until Washington makes a decision," Volodin said, as cited by the Belarusian news agency BelTA.

He believes that "Ukraine does not exist as a state at this point." "This territory currently is a testing ground for weapons that are being sent by all NATO countries. There is a completely puppet government in Ukraine. It is advisors from Washington and Brussels that run everything. As for Zelensky, he’s nothing but a TV host, used to reading prepared texts," the State Duma speaker pointed out.

Volodin added that there were no legitimate government agencies in Ukraine. "They have long stopped representing the people as they seized power via a coup," he said. According to Volodin, "Washington runs the show there and Washington will decide how long the war will last and how many Ukrainians will die." "The Ukrainian people are expendable for them [the US - TASS]," the State Duma chief concluded.