Lavrov said that the United States and Great Britain forbade Kyiv to negotiate with Moscow

The United States and Great Britain were afraid of possible agreements between Russia and Ukraine, so they forbade Kyiv to negotiate, declared in an interview with the American magazine Newsweek, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

“Washington is not interested in establishing peace and tranquility in Ukraine. This became clear back in March, when Moscow and Kyiv came close to reaching mutual agreements. This turn of events clearly frightened the Americans and the British, so they effectively banned Ukraine from further dialogue with Russia. Since then, the Ukrainian authorities have shied away from the negotiation process,” he said.

Since the beginning of the special operation, Russia and Ukraine have held negotiations several times. The first three face-to-face meetings took place in Belarus in February-March, and the fourth round of the Russian-Ukrainian dialogue was held on March 29 in Istanbul. Later the process was frozen. According to Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko, Ukraine actually withdrew from the negotiations.

Former President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky declaredthat his country would not negotiate with Russia, other high-ranking Ukrainian politicians made similar statements. Later, Zelensky announced that in the event of a referendum, Ukraine would refuse to negotiate with Russia.

Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov declaredthat it will not be possible to resolve the crisis in Ukraine through diplomacy. Last week, he also said that the Kremlin sees no prospects for negotiations with the Kyiv authorities, since they refuse to dialogue. “We still state the absence of any prerequisites for such negotiations,” he stressed.