Russia sees no chance of ceasefire in Ukraine by 2024
(Baonghean.vn) - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov sees no chance of a ceasefire in the Ukrainian conflict next year, on the basis that Kiev and Western countries maintain a completely unacceptable stance towards Moscow.
A senior Russian diplomat offered his analysis of Russia’s relations with NATO and Ukraine in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper on Wednesday. Sergei Ryabkov predicted no breakthrough, despite suggestions in the Western press that the United States could push Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky toward a negotiated solution.
“Unfortunately, the United States leads the Western group, which treats Zelensky's 'peace formula' as a mantra, considering it the only possible basis for an agreement,” Sergei Ryabkov said, stressing that a dialogue is “impossible on this basis.”
Asked if he expected a ceasefire next year, Mr Ryabkov responded negatively. “I hope that the goals of the special military operation will be achieved unconditionally,” he said. The “peace formula” proposed by President Zelensky last year calls for Kiev to regain control of its pre-2014 borders, receive war reparations from Moscow and put Russian officials on trial amid broad international support for Ukraine. Russia has rejected the proposal as unrealistic.
Germany's Bild newspaper reported last week that Washington and Berlin were limiting arms supplies to Ukraine to pressure Zelensky into making concessions. The White House said US policy remained the same and that it was up to Kiev how to conduct the war.
But David Arakhamia, a key Zelensky ally who leads the ruling party in parliament and headed the Ukrainian delegation to last year’s peace talks in Istanbul, recently provided further grounds for doubt about the degree of independence of Ukraine’s policy. He confirmed that former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had derailed a potential ceasefire with Russia and told Ukraine’s leaders to “just go to war.”
Arakhamia said Moscow’s main goal was Ukraine’s neutrality. Ryabkov reiterated that NATO expansion in Europe was the main cause of the Ukrainian conflict. He said that Russia’s relations with the US-led military bloc were unlikely to recover soon “for reasons of principle and practicality.”
“If someone in the West thinks that we need that relationship and that at some point they will come and ask for it to be restored, then that is a big mistake in judgment,” he said. Ryabkov also warned that NATO members were “gambling” by violating Russia’s fundamental interests and appeared to believe that there were no limits to the bet, but “they could end up in the losing group.”
