Moscow demands Kyiv to negotiate with terrorists

The Foreign Ministry of Russia has rejected a proposal of Ukraine about direct talks on resolving the crisis in Donbas.

As said by the deputy head of the ministry, Grigory Karasin, “in the southeast Ukraine there are people to whom the population trusts.” “The authorities of Kyiv should hold talks not with Moscow, but with representatives of southeastern Ukraine,” the diplomat said in a conversation with “Interfax.”

We remind that earlier Kyiv invited Moscow to negotiate on de-escalation of the situation in eastern Ukraine in a neutral territory. Such a statement was made by Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Tuesday at the joint press-conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg. He stressed that Russia continues escalation of the conflict in Donbas and build-up of its troops in these territories. He believes that progress in de-escalation of the conflict fully depends on the position of Russian president Vladimir Putin and his entourage.