Kiev is not prepared to resolve the conflict with Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said
FILE PHOTO: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov © Sputnik / Ramil Sitdikov
A promise by US presidential candidate Donald Trump to put a swift end to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev is hardly realistic, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday. Ukraine does not appear to be ready to any kind of settlement, he added.
The former US president and the current Republican frontrunner has vowed on several occasions to facilitate a peace deal “within days” if he wins the upcoming election. Trump claimed that he would be able to quickly convince both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to sit down and negotiate.
“I cannot believe in something that has not materialized [yet],” Lavrov told a press conference in New York, on the sidelines of a UN Security Council meeting, when whether he thinks Trump would be able to deliver on his promise.
“We will see. I doubt that the Ukrainian side would be ready for any resolution,” the Russian minister added.
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Lavrov also noted that Zelensky has already been “quite rude” in responding to Trump’s statements. The Ukrainian leader branded Trump’s ideas “very dangerous” and said he was worried the former US president was seeking to “make decisions on his own,” without either Russia or Ukraine.
There have been no contacts with the current GOP frontrunner on reaching peace with Kiev, Moscow has said. Earlier this week, Lavrov noted that Trump’s potential return to the White House was unlikely to reverse the downward trend in relations between Russia and the US, as Washington had already destroyed all the confidence-building mechanisms and was still too obsessed with its own perceived “superiority” and “impunity” to change its view of Russia.
