MOSCOW, July 16. /TASS/. All claims by the Kiev regime about its readiness to resolve the conflict via political-diplomatic means are just "smoke and mirrors," as the decree banning negotiations with Russia remains in effect in Ukraine, Alexey Polishchuk, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Second CIS Department, told TASS in an interview.

"Had the authorities in Kiev been indeed ready to resolve the crisis politically and diplomatically, then first of all, they would have canceled the decree on a self-ban on conducting talks with the Russian leadership and agreed to a focused discussion of other initiatives, except for the categorical 'Zelensky formula.' As long as the ban stays in force and the 'formula' continues to be implemented, all claims by Kiev about its aspiration for peace are just empty words and smoke and mirrors. We are certain that the countries of the global majority understand this," Polishchuk stressed.

The diplomat noted that behind the "pseudo-peaceful rhetoric" and statements by Kiev representatives on their readiness for talks with Russia is the intention to "earn the sympathy of the countries of the Global South and lure them over to the anti-Russian Western side."

Russian President Vladimir Putin repeatedly stressed that Russia has always been open to discuss a political-diplomatic settlement in Ukraine but "Kiev is against it."

On October 4, 2022, Vladimir Zelensky enforced the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council’s resolution banning any negotiations with Putin.