MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that Moscow was not ready to make concessions when it came to Ukraine and that President Vladimir Putin’s own proposals on how to end the conflict needed to be implemented.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova made her comments in the context of a call by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday for an immediate ceasefire and negotiations between Ukraine and Russia to end “the madness.”
Zakharova said Russia was ready to engage with the new U.S. administration on Ukraine, but had not yet received any serious, workable options to address what she said were Russia’s legitimate security concerns and worries about the rights of Ukraine’s Russian-speaking population.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who has been pushing hard for his country to be invited to join the NATO military alliance, responded to Trump’s comments by saying Kyiv needed effective security guarantees.
But Zakharova said that anyone who thought Russia would make concessions on Ukraine was mistaken.
“Firstly, Russia is acting. Secondly, if someone expects Russia to make some kind of concessions, apparently these people have a short memory and insufficient knowledge of the matter,” she said.
Putin’s proposals for peace needed to be implemented, she said.
The Kremlin chief has said that Ukraine must not join NATO and that Russia needs the entire territory of the four Ukrainian regions he has said are now part of Russia if there is to be peace.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
