“Ukraine is still not ready to negotiate peace, all Kuleba’s statements are a smokescreen,” the MP said, commenting on statements by UN Secretary-General António Guterres about readiness to mediate in a “peace summit”, which was previously proposed by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba.
Slutsky recalled that the Ukrainian side withdrew from the Istanbul negotiation process and chose the path of escalation.
“We didn’t avoid peace talks, we didn’t stage a provocation in Bucha,” he stressed in an interview with TASS.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that Kyiv refused to negotiate, but Moscow would be open to dialogue if the Ukrainian regime "matured".