Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday February 27 rejected the Russian proposal for talks in Gomel, Belarus. “Warsaw, Bratislava, Budapest, Istanbul, Baku. We offered them all. And any other city would be fine for us as long as we don’t get rockets fired at us from their territory.”, said the leader in an online video. Addressing Belarusians, he points out that “if on your territory there were no offensive actions, we could have talked to Minsk”. Indeed, the invasion of Ukraine, launched by Russia, notably started from positions in Belarus.
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A delegation of representatives of “ministries of foreign affairs, defense and other departments, including the presidential administration arrived in Belarus for negotiations with the Ukrainians”said Sunday, the spokesman of the Russian presidency, quoted by the national agencies.
A photo of this delegation was shared on social networks but a Moscow-based journalist believes that this initiative is not to be taken seriously.
Russia sends “negotiators”:
-in Gomel, Belarus, one of the bases of the invasion
-led by V. Medinski, former minister of culture and ultra-nationalist whom no one takes seriously in Russia itself
– without changing its requirements
Trolling more than real offer. https://t.co/nVY0AKva1e— Benoît Vitkine (@benvtk) February 27, 2022
Russia had already said on Friday that it wanted to negotiate with the Ukrainians but only in Belarus. When his services spoke of talks, President Vladimir Putin called on the Ukrainian army to stage a coup and called the country’s authorities “Clique of drug addicts and neo-Nazis”.