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Military operation in Ukraine

Russian diplomat blasts Kiev’s reaction to Orban’s peace initiative as smokescreen

After his talks in Kiev on Tuesday, Viktor Orban proposed that Ukraine consider a ceasefire as a step toward starting talks with Russia to settle the armed conflict at a press briefing

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova Alexander Demianchuk/TASS

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova

© Alexander Demianchuk/TASS

MOSCOW, July 3. /TASS/. Kiev’s peace rhetoric is nothing but a facade as Ukraine keeps pursuing the goal of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia set to it by the collective West, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik Radio, commenting on how Ukraine responded to a ceasefire proposal put forward by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

"All that peace rhetoric is just a smokescreen, smoke and mirrors, cliches or memes. Abstract words that must be learned by heart and voiced, while there is only one goal, which was declared by the collective West, namely to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia," the diplomat said.

After his talks in Kiev on Tuesday, Orban proposed that Ukraine consider a ceasefire as a step toward starting talks with Russia to settle the armed conflict at a press briefing. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky however, did not even mention this initiative at the same briefing.

Deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential office Igor Zhovkva later said that Kiev had taken note of the Hungarian premier’s ceasefire proposal but that it believed such initiatives cannot be considered in isolation from other settlement aspects.

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Foreign policy Maria Zakharova Military operation in Ukraine

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