In the Russian Federation, statements about peace negotiations with Ukraine began to be heard more and more often.
This information was reported ISW, reports URA-Inform.
ISW believes that such rhetoric from Moscow is aimed at forcing the West to make concessions on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our state.
Institute specialists noted that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov used the meeting of dozens of foreign ambassadors from non-Western states to condemn the Ukrainian «peace formula».
«Lavrov spoke at the «round table» before more than 70 foreign ambassadors at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) on April 4 and repeated several boilerplate narratives, claiming that Ukraine was responsible for starting the war in 2014 and Ukraine's alleged involvement in the recent terrorist attack in Moscow. After the meeting, Lavrov told reporters that Russia believes that “there is no need to talk with Zelensky,” but instead Russia should negotiate with the West, — analysts noted.
At the same time, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu held negotiations with his French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu, during which the head of the defense department of the aggressor country expressed interest in peace negotiations with Ukraine and threatened France in order to restrain support for Ukraine.
“Shoigu’s attempts to threaten France and deter continued Western support for Ukraine by pretending to be interested in peace negotiations are part of a broader Russian information operation aimed at persuading Western countries to push Ukraine into unfavorable and unequal negotiations on Russia’s terms.” analysts.
In addition, Kremlin Speaker Dmitry Peskov, relations between Russia and NATO «slipped to the level of direct confrontation» and that NATO «is already involved in the conflict around Ukraine». In addition, Peskov accused NATO of moving closer to Russia's borders, probably referring to the recent entry of Finland and Sweden into the alliance, and said that NATO is expanding its military infrastructure closer to the Russian Federation.
«This Kremlin narrative is also likely an attempt to portray NATO's defense activities in response to overt Russian aggression as provocative», — analysts say.
ISW emphasized that Russian officials have repeatedly groundlessly accused Ukraine and the West of the lack of peace negotiations, despite numerous public Russian statements indicating that Moscow is not interested in good faith negotiations with Ukraine.
«ISW continues to assess that Russia's maximalist goals – tantamount to complete capitulation of Ukraine and the West – remain unchanged and that any Russian statements that Russia is interested in peace negotiations are likely attempts force the West to make concessions in relation to Ukrainian sovereignty and territory. integrity»,” the message says.
We recall that it was previously reported that he would persuade the Russian Federation to negotiate: Stoltenberg named the path to ending the war.