MOSCOW, November 17. /TASS/. Western countries have laid the groundwork for a change of elites in Ukraine to cement the country’s territorial status quo, said Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OSCE Mikhail Buyakevich.

"We can see how, against the backdrop of military failures and the growing information background regarding the anti-democratic and corrupt nature of the Kiev regime in the West itself, its foreign sponsors have been paving the way for a change of elites in Ukraine in an effort to preserve the current state of affairs," the senior Russian diplomat told a meeting of the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on Thursday, according to a transcript on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website.

Continuing, he said, "through multiple channels, including via retired diplomats, former functionaries and NATO military officials, proposals to fix the territorial status quo as soon as possible have been actively made as part of a dead cat strategy in the hope of either halting Russia’s special military operation or getting it to abandon its goals."

Buyakevich pointed out that it was becoming more and more obvious that those who continue to fuel armed confrontation do not have the Ukrainian people’s interests at heart. They want to prop up their own economies, namely through placing orders with their weapons manufacturers and getting rid of outdated products while replacing them with new ones. He recalled corresponding remarks by US officials and the November 10 BBC interview with French President Emmanuel Macron who reiterated that the time for negotiations with Moscow had not yet come.