ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) — Zakharova added that it was "ridiculous and naive" to talk about the need to engage the United States into negotiations formats, as it already had influence on Ukraine.
"The US political establishment has a direct impact on the Kiev regime. We all know this very well. Financial, economic, political and many other, including the informative. Many officials of the previous administration had direct business relationship with the Kiev regime," Zakharova said in the interview with Rossiya 24 TV channel.
Meanwhile, Russia's envoy to EU Vladimir Chizhov told Sputnik that the next Normandy Four summit on Ukraine as well as personal talks between Russian and French presidents may take place on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Hamburg in July.
"It could be both in the format of the G20 and in the format of a summit of the Normandy Four there. We'll see," Chizhov added.
Ukraine launched a military operation in Donbas in April 2014, after local residents refused to recognize the new government in Kiev that they viewed as illegitimate. In February 2015, the warring parties to the Ukrainian conflict signed the Minsk peace accords in order to enact a cease fire in the crisis-torn region. Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine, as the members of the Normandy Four, helped negotiate the Donbas ceasefire. It has been, however, repeatedly breached, with the conflicting sides accusing each other of violating the ceasefire regime.
SPIEF, held in Russia's second largest city of St. Petersburg between Thursday and Saturday, is a major global platform for communication between business representatives and the discussions of crucial economic issues. Sputnik News Agency is the official media partner of the forum.
