RIO DE JANEIRO, January 23. /TASS/. Argentine President Alberto Fernandez said the country hasn’t cut off dialogue with Russia even as Moscow is conducting a special military operation in Ukraine, according to his interview with the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo that was published on Sunday.
"I didn’t stop talking to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, but we never supported the invasion. The last time I spoke with him, when he called me to congratulate me on Argentina’s victory in the Cup, I said again that it was necessary to sit down [for talks - TASS] to resolve this issue. And I continued to make it clear that Argentina doesn’t support this invasion," the president said.
On February 24 Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in response to a request for help by the heads of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, but aims to demilitarize and de-Nazify the country. On October 4, Putin signed laws to incorporate into Russia the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics and the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. In late September they held referendums on the accession to Russia, and the overwhelming majority of people voted in favor of such a step.