Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba contemplated slugging his counterpart Sergey Lavrov in the face during tense negotiations in the early days of Russia’s special military operation, it was reported Monday.
The revelation came from the release of an interview with an online Ukrainian influencer who asked Kuleba about his most challenging negotiations as the country’s chief diplomat.
“The most difficult talks are those in which you feel simply that you want to go and punch your opposite number in the nose, but you really can't do that,” replied the foreign minister. “And I can say that this occurred two or three times. One occasion was with Lavrov in Antalya in spring of 2022.”
Russian and Ukrainian diplomats met for a series of talks shortly after Russia initiated their special military operation in 2022, one of which took place in the Turkish resort city of Antalya. Following advice of its Western partners, Ukrainian representatives reportedly refused to continue negotiations, opting for an armed conflict with Russia. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly rejected negotiations with Russia since then.
Zelensky’s rejection of negotiations with Russia represents a continued about face for the Ukrainian leader, who ran as a peace candidate for the country’s presidency in 2019. Zelensky campaigned on implementing the so-called Minsk agreements to end tensions with Russia, which would have granted ethnic Russian regions in the Donbass a degree of autonomy.
Zelensky later admitted his promise was merely a ruse with European leaders to provide time for Ukraine to expand its military capabilities. Zelensky foresaw a war with Russia as inevitable, although his campaign rhetoric suggests the Ukrainian public was less willing to violently confront its neighbor. Indeed, members of Ukraine’s military often refused to fight separatist forces in the country’s east until leaders recruited members of the Azov Battalion* and other extremists.
21 September 2023, 19:18 GMT
Many observers speculated that Azov Battalion* members and other neo-Nazi elements of Ukrainian society also played a role in Zelensky’s rejection of peace with Russia. Such far-right paramilitaries forced former President Viktor Yanukovych to step down from his position and flee Ukraine in 2014. Ukrainian leaders operate under the threat of such Russophobic elements doing the same if Ukraine backs down; indeed, extremist leaders have made it clear they consider the prospect of peace with Russia to be unacceptable.
Maria Zakharova of Russia’s foreign ministry responded indignantly to Kuleba’s comments.
“That is the problem: uneducated, aggressive people were recruited under the guise of serving as ministers to ruin Ukraine for American money,” the spokesperson said to a Russian newspaper. “Perhaps he belongs in a no-holds-barred bout rather than the foreign ministry?”
Before he became leader of Ukraine, Zelensky was formerly an actor and comedian who played the president on the popular television program Servant of the People.
*The Azov Battalion is a terrorist organization banned in Russia.