روسيا: سلام أوكرانيا مرهون بتوقف تسليح الغرب

The spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, tied the achievement of peace in Ukraine to the West's cessation of arms supplies. She stated that peace negotiations and a peaceful settlement have never been a real agenda for the West; otherwise, it would have stopped supplying Kyiv with weapons.

In response to a question from the TASS agency, she added: If the West wants peace in Ukraine, it must stop supplying weapons, cease sponsoring terrorist activities, and perhaps ensure that the Kyiv regime does not implement and spread extremist ideology. But they are doing none of that. On the contrary, they are increasingly seeking arms supplies and militarization with enthusiasm and aggression. They have increasingly begun to use direct aggressive intimidation, especially against their own peoples.

Zakharova reiterated the need to look at the roots of the crisis and understand that the phrases "peace negotiations" and "political and diplomatic organization" have never been a real direction or genuine philosophy for the West, whether it be the collective West, NATO, or any of its members independently.

The third round of direct Russian-Ukrainian negotiations ended last Wednesday evening in Istanbul, where the positions of the two countries remained distant regarding the end of the war, but a new agreement was reached on the exchange of prisoners after talks held at the Çırağan Palace in Istanbul that lasted about an hour.

The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, stated at a press conference that the positions of the two countries "remain distant."