MOSCOW, February 14. /TASS/. Publications about Russia-US contacts on Ukraine are conspiracy theories and rumors, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

Commenting on the information that in 2023 Russia allegedly sent signals to the United States about its readiness to consider ways to achieve a ceasefire in Ukraine, but Washington rejected them, the diplomat pointed out that the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine were first interrupted by the UK side. "Then this ban on negotiations at the legal, legislative level was enshrined by the US. We also said that it was not us who stopped these negotiations. We were just responding to Ukrainian proposals on the text [of the treaty], and that's where it ended because of Western pressure on [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky and the Kiev regime. <...> I think that some gossip, rumors, so to speak, discussions, interpretations, perhaps some misunderstandings, some conspiracy theories are being built around this," the spokeswoman said.

Zakharova pointed out that the Russian side has also responded a million times to questions about what needs to be done to resume the negotiation process. "The answer has been given. Probably, the West needs to somehow unblock its own decision prohibiting the Kiev regime from conducting these negotiations," the spokeswoman concluded.