Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev has stated that Kiev had “preferred to forget” about Russia's settlement plan on Ukraine.
“Ukraine itself does not want to negotiate at all. They have long preferred to forget about the Russian draft peace treaty. It was as if it didn't exist at all. Kiev only relies on the flow of weapons and money from Western countries. War to the bitter end,” Medvedev wrote in his Telegram channel on Tuesday.
He also commented on Italy’s settlement plan on Ukraine, describing it as “a pure stream of consciousness that does not take into account realities”.
According to him, “there is a feeling that it was prepared not by diplomats, but by local political scientists who have read provincial newspapers and only use Ukrainian fake news.”
The Italian newspaper La Repubblica previously reported that the Italian Foreign Ministry had handed a four-point peace settlement plan on Ukraine to the UN.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow has not yet seen Italy's proposals on resolving the Ukraine conflict, but it hopes that the plan will be sent through diplomatic channels to Moscow for review.
The statement came after Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month that the Moscow-Kiev negotiations had been basically suspended by the Ukrainian side, as it does not show interest in a serious and constructive dialogue.
Moscow and Kiev held several rounds of talks after the start of Russia’s ongoing special military operation in Ukraine in late February, but failed to reach any kind of a peace agreement.
The operation to demilitarise and de-Nazify Ukraine was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on 24 February, following request for help from the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republic amid intensified shelling by the Ukrainian forces. According to the Russian Defence Ministry, the operation, which only targets Ukraine’s military infrastructure with high-precision weapons, currently focuses on liberating eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region.