Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov did not answer the phone call of his Ukrainian counterpart Dmitry Kuleba several months ago, as he was not in Moscow. On Tuesday, April 20, a source told RIA Novosti about this.
“It was back in September. The minister was not in Moscow, and the question on which he called did not concern bilateral relations. It belonged to the competence of the Contact Group on the settlement in Donbass and the relations of Kiev with Donetsk and Lugansk, “- said the agency’s interlocutor.
According to him, this topic should be discussed by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry not with Moscow, but with the DPR and LPR.
Earlier on the same day, the head of the Ukrainian diplomatic service, Dmitry Kuleba, spoke about attempts to contact his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov by phone several months ago, but he was not called back. According to the minister, this fact can be considered the reason for the lack of negotiations between the countries.
“President Vladimir Zelensky asked for a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but we did not find a response from Moscow. I asked for a call from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a few months ago, and he did not call back, ”Kuleba said during a press conference with foreign journalists.
The Foreign Minister also recalled the unsuccessful negotiations of the “Normandy Four” advisers that had taken place the day before; he blamed Moscow for the lack of results.
Earlier on Tuesday, it became known that the three-hour talks between political advisers and representatives of the Foreign Ministries of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine ended in vain. According to a RIA Novosti source, Kiev protested against Moscow’s proposals.
On April 16, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he had sent a request to speak with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, but received no response. Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the information.
On April 13, Kuleba said that Kiev is aimed at a diplomatic solution to the conflict in Donbass. At the same time, he stressed that Ukraine will not lose its vigilance if “a spiral of violence begins.”
In turn, Moscow stressed that the de-escalation of the situation in Donbass will be possible only if Kiev refuses to provoke.