Russian President Vladimir Putin has ruled out negotiations with Kiev over Ukraine’s counterattack on Russian territory, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday.
“The president has said very clearly that after the attacks,
or even an invasion of the Kursk region, all talks are
“That is impossible,” Lavrov said on Russian state television during Putin’s visit to Azerbaijan.
Lavrov also said that Putin would soon give an assessment of the situation. Reports of contacts between the warring parties, which were established through intermediaries such as Qatar or Turkey, were nothing more than rumors, Lavrov added.
The Russian president’s current silence on the crisis in his own military is not new. When faced with previous defeats, Putin spoke out only after a long pause and sometimes after sitting out the crisis.
Ukraine, which has been battling a large-scale Russian invasion for nearly two and a half years, launched a counteroffensive about two weeks ago, advancing into the western Russian region of Kursk.
This is the first time that Kiev has moved the war to its opponent’s territory. Russia continues to occupy large parts of eastern and southern Ukraine.
Before the Ukrainian counterattack, Putin had demanded that Kiev cede more territory as a condition for peace negotiations.
