France offered secret talks on Ukraine – Lavrov

Paris has proposed helping Moscow establish dialogue on the conflict without Kiev’s participation, the Russian foreign minister has said

France has repeatedly offered to help establish secret talks on the Ukraine conflict without Kiev’s direct participation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

Speaking to journalists at an end-of-year press conference on Thursday, Lavrov stated that French diplomats have approached the Russian side “through closed channels,” offering to let them “establish a dialogue on the Ukraine issue.”

According to the foreign minister, this was done without the involvement of the Ukrainian side. The minister noted that these signals from Paris seemed to violate the Western rule of “not a word about Ukraine without Ukraine.”

However, Lavrov went on to say that, while Russia does not mind holding these types of talks, France is also the primary initiator of discussions about sending peacekeepers to Ukraine, is currently training Ukrainian troops, and has stated that it is necessary to “continue to hammer Russia” to ensure that Ukraine has a stronger negotiating position.

“Such ambiguous behavior does not inspire a desire to take seriously what is happening at the initiative of our French colleagues,” he said.

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Lavrov weighs in on Trump’s Ukraine peace efforts

Nevertheless, Lavrov reiterated that Moscow remains open to discussions on how to resolve the Ukraine conflict, including with the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump, but will not be satisfied with “empty talks.”

He stressed that Russia will not accept any proposals that include a ceasefire, arguing that it is a “road to nowhere” as it would only be used by Ukraine to regroup, receive more weapons from the West, and conduct further mobilization.

Moscow insists on “final legal agreements that will fix all the conditions for ensuring the security of Russia and the legitimate security interests of our neighbors, but in a context that will secure the impossibility of violating these agreements in an international legal manner,” Lavrov said.