dpa
Moscow/Berlin
Unlike German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the Russian government sees no basis for peace talks with Ukraine now, a top Kremlin official said on Monday.
Dmirty Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, flatly dismissed the suggestion Scholz made during an interview on Sunday that a negotiated peace could end the conflict. “As far as a peaceful settlement of the conflict in Ukraine is concerned, no tangible contours have yet emerged,” Peskov said in Moscow.
Russia has heard chatter and statements about negotiations from various European leaders, “but we are not hearing anything from the country that is steering this process, that is directing the collective West,” Peskov said, referring to the United States.
All of Moscow’s demands for an end to the war have so far boiled down to Ukraine ceding territory - and also granting Russia a great deal of control over the rest of Ukraine as well.
Ukrainian leaders have categorically ruled out those concessions, calling it tantamount to capitulation. In recent weeks, President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for what he calls a “just peace.”
In aninterview with public broadcaster ZDF on Sunday, Scholz said: “I believe that this is the time to discuss how we can get out of this war and achieve peace more quickly than it currently seems.”
Previous peace conferences have excluded Russia, and have backed demands from Zelensky which Putin has ruled out as absolutely unacceptable.
