MANILA (Sputnik) — US State Secretary Rex Tillerson confirmed that US Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker will visit Russia in the near future, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Sunday.
"Rex Tillerson confirmed that this contact with our representative [Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aide] Vladislav Surkov is planned and will take place in the near future," Lavrov told journalists after the meeting with Tillerson in the Philippine capital of Manila.
Lavrov also reminded that Volker had already visited Kiev, Paris, Berlin and London.
"It will be interesting for us what idea the US special representative has about the current state of affairs," Lavrov added.
Late July, Volker visited Kiev and Donbass. Volker described the militia-controlled Donbass territories as "occupied," and claimed that the conflict in eastern Ukraine is not a civil war, but an act of 'Russian aggression.'
Kiev launched a special military operation in Ukraine’s southeast in April 2014, after local residents refused to recognize the new Ukrainian authorities, which came to power as a result of a coup. In February 2015, the two sides reached a peace agreement after talks brokered by the leaders of Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine — the so-called Normandy Format — in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. Kiev has been reluctant to implement a number of Minsk deal provisions.
The United States does not participate in the Normandy format of Ukraine peace talks, nevertheless, Washington appointed Volker as Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations.
