France offered Russia dialogue on war behind Ukraine’s back through closed channels - Lavrov
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that France had allegedly offered Russia a dialogue on the Russian-Ukrainian war without Ukraine's participation.
According to Censor.NET, he said this in an interview with Russian and foreign media.
According to the aggressor country's minister, Russia did not refuse to engage and was "ready to listen" to France's proposals.
"Our French colleagues have a desire to play a proactive role in a variety of issues, and we welcome this, but I don't know what the result of such initiatives is, and how sincere the desire to play a positive role is," Lavrov said.
"Several times we have received requests from our French colleagues through closed channels: let us help, let us establish a dialogue on the Ukrainian issue. By the way, without any Ukraine, just a dialogue on the Ukrainian issue, allegedly violating the principle that the West constantly repeats that "not a word about Ukraine without Ukraine," the Russian Foreign Minister added.
The minister called France's behaviour "ambiguous", as it trains Ukrainian military on its territory and advocates sending a European contingent to Ukraine.
"Such ambiguous behaviour does not make us want to take seriously what is happening at the initiative of our French colleagues," he concluded.
Peacekeeping forces in Ukraine
Earlier, it was reported that French President Emmanuel Macron would discuss with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk the deployment of peacekeeping forces in Ukraine if an agreement is reached to end the current phase of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk denied that Polish troops would be sent to Ukraine after the ceasefire.
The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, assessed the possibility of sending a European peacekeeping mission to Ukraine.
Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto expressed his readiness to support a peacekeeping mission to Ukraine if peace is achieved.
In turn, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani called these discussions "premature".
Germany, together with its partners, will consider the possible deployment of peacekeepers in Ukraine as part of "security guarantees" only after the conditions for this are created, namely a ceasefire with Russia.
