Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov spoke negatively about the Ukrainian initiative to join the Normandy Four of the United States of America.

“With the approaches that Washington is demonstrating and applying, it has nothing to do in the Normandy format,” he said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

In an interview with RT, the first deputy chairman of the State Duma committee for CIS affairs, Eurasian integration and relations with compatriots, Viktor Vodolatsky, emphasized that it is Washington that dictates a model of behavior to Kiev.

“Naturally, Europe already understands that the US is dragging them into unseemly deeds.

Today, both Macron and Merkel look differently at Zelensky, he is not independent.

Such an attitude is seen in Kiev, so they are trying to attract the United States to influence Germany and France, ”the parliamentarian explained.

He added that Ukraine could have settled the situation in Donbass peacefully for a long time, we will fulfill the Minsk agreements, but the United States needs an active conflict.

"Whatever the options, Kiev refuses the Minsk format, the Normandy format, and so on," added Vodolatsky.

In turn, political scientist and economist Alexander Dudchak also said about the pointlessness of involving the United States in the negotiation process in the Normandy format.

"We need to negotiate with the United States, because they have a colossal influence on Ukraine and on the European participants, but this will be a completely different format of negotiations, and this will have nothing to do with the Normandy Four and the negotiation process in Minsk," the source said. RT.

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  • © Ludovic Marin

Over the past months, Ukrainian officials have repeatedly come forward with initiatives to involve the United States in negotiations on the Donbass.

In December 2020, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy indicated that Joe Biden “understands the Ukrainian mentality,” knows Ukraine better than Donald Trump, and will help in resolving the conflict in Donbass.

The Ukrainian leader did not explain what caused this position.

However, we recall that during the presidency of Barack Obama, Biden was in charge of the Ukrainian direction and repeatedly visited the country. 

And in 2019, against the backdrop of the gathering momentum of the election campaign in the United States, a major scandal erupted, which turned into an impeachment procedure against Trump over a telephone conversation with Zelensky.

The 45th President of the United States was then accused of allegedly trying to put pressure on his colleague to initiate an investigation into Burisma, whose board of directors previously included Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden.

In February 2020, Trump was acquitted as part of the removal procedure.

In turn, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba expressed the hope that under the Joe Biden administration, relations between Kiev and Washington will develop in the rhythm of "rock and roll."

In February, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Aleksey Reznikov proposed to involve the United States and Poland in negotiations on Donbass.

In March, the former president of Ukraine, and now the representative of the Ukrainian delegation in the trilateral contact group, Leonid Kravchuk, spoke in favor of Washington joining the negotiation process.

Against this background, the number of ceasefire violations has increased in Donbass.

Kiev blamed the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, as well as Russia, for the escalation.

At the same time, the DPR and LPR indicated that it was the Ukrainian side that was responsible for the growth of tension, shelling and mining the territory.

Along with this, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Dmytro Kuleba, in telephone conversations with the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, announced the alleged “military activity” of Russia near the Ukrainian borders and the undermining of the Minsk agreements.

Meanwhile, on April 6, Sergei Ryabkov spoke about his contacts with Washington in the Donbass.

According to him, the essence of what is happening in the region was explained to the colleagues from the United States "in an exhaustive way".

Ryabkov also noted that Moscow is not going to give any further explanations to the American side on this issue, including because of the "tonality" of the dialogue imposed by the Americans.

In turn, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that he was disappointed with the position of the West, led by the United States, which supports Kiev's actions to build up its military contingent near the contact line in Donbass.

In this regard, the head of the foreign ministry also called on the partners in the Normandy format - France and Germany - to immediately "bring to their senses" their colleagues from Kiev.