Moscow sees no chance of a diplomatic answer to finish the struggle in Ukraine and expects an extended battle, a senior Russian diplomat has warned, as President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion reaches the six-month mark this week.
Gennady Gatilov, Russia’s everlasting consultant to the UN in Geneva, instructed the Financial Times that the UN must be enjoying a much bigger function in makes an attempt to finish the battle and accused the US and different Nato international locations of urgent Ukraine to stroll away from negotiations. There can be no direct talks between Putin and Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he stated.
“Now, I do not see any possibility for diplomatic contacts,” Gatilov stated. “And the more the conflict goes on, the more difficult it will be to have a diplomatic solution.”
His remarks, which come regardless of a flurry of shuttle diplomacy in latest weeks, are a blow to negotiators who had hoped {that a} latest settlement on grain exports from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports may type the idea for a broader deal.
The UN has grow to be mired in “politicisation” due to the struggle and that has “damaged the authority of the UN and its organisations”, Gatilov stated. As a outcome, it’s unable to behave successfully as a mediator, he complained.
“We do not have any contacts with the western delegations,” he stated of his day-to-day work in Geneva. “On the protocol side we do not see each other . . . Privately we do not have any contacts, unfortunately . . . we simply do not talk to each other.”
Global diplomacy was within the worst state he had skilled in his 50-year profession, Gatilov added. “The world has changed and the UN will never be the same as it was before,” he stated.
Russia invaded on February 24, in what Putin known as a “special military operation” to “denazify” Ukraine. It was condemned by western international locations which imposed crippling sanctions on Moscow and severed ties. An preliminary try and seize Kyiv in a lightning assault was thwarted, forcing Moscow’s military to regroup and deal with an artillery-led marketing campaign within the east.
Bilateral ceasefire negotiations broke down after proof was found of struggle crimes dedicated by occupying Russian troops in April. Moscow has denied the allegations.
The failure to restart peace talks, mixed with continued western army help for Ukraine, meant it was unimaginable to forecast how lengthy the battle may final, Gatilov stated: “And so they [Kyiv and its western supporters] will fight until the last Ukrainian.”
Gatilov, who served as deputy international minister earlier than being posted to Geneva in 2018, claimed that Moscow and Kyiv had been “very close” to an settlement that would have paused the battle in negotiations hosted by Turkey in April. People concerned within the talks have refuted this.
The UN and Turkey have sought to behave as intermediaries between Kyiv and Moscow, and had latest success in brokering the deal on Ukraine’s grain exports.
But Gatilov stated it was “unfortunate” that the UN was not enjoying a bigger function. “I think [the grain deal] is the only example that they played a practical role in trying to mediate,” he stated. “It should be more than that.”
Gatilov accused western international locations of utilizing the scenario “as a matter of pressure on Russia, as a tool of isolation of Russia . . . damaging our position, economically, politically”.
“They do not care about the Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian soldiers,” he stated.
Ukraine’s defence has been boosted by greater than $30bn value of weapons provides pledged by the US, UK and different Nato allies. Zelenskyy has beforehand stated that he noticed direct talks with Putin as the one method to negotiate an finish to the battle, and solely after a Russian withdrawal from all Ukrainian territory captured since February.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser in Zelenskyy’s administration who participated within the failed peace talks, stated on Friday that “negotiating with the Russian Federation means . . . a fatal ending for everyone”.
Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has maintained relations with each Kyiv and Moscow because the invasion, visited Putin in Sochi earlier this month and met Zelenskyy in Lviv final week alongside UN secretary-general António Guterres in an effort to behave as a mediator.
Erdoğan stated throughout his go to to Ukraine: “I continue to have faith that the war will end at the negotiating table. Mr Zelenskyy and Mr Putin are of the same opinion.”
But that assertion didn’t discuss with any new developments that would result in negotiations, in line with an individual aware of the discussions.
Gatilov praised Erdoğan for “trying his best” to facilitate dialogue however dismissed hypothesis of direct talks between Putin and Zelenskyy, saying there “was not any practical platform for having this meeting”.
He additionally accused Ukraine of “a clear provocation” on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant which is occupied by Russian forces. Ukraine has blamed Russia for shelling the plant, whereas Nato has stated Russia is utilizing the nuclear website as a base from which to launch assaults.
“Russian troops are just guarding it. Just securing it. Why should we shell it?” Gatilov stated. Russia has agreed to an pressing security go to by the International Atomic Energy Agency to the plant.
Additional reporting by Roman Olearchyk and Mehul Srivastava in Kyiv
