The key facts
- Rodion Miroshnik called Europe's proposals on Ukraine ultimatums and demands for reparations
- According to him, Europe takes part in negotiations in order to derail them
- He claims that European capitals are irritated by the communication between Washington and Moscow
Assessing Europe's role in the negotiations
Rodion Miroshnik, Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry, in an interview with Gazeta.Ru, said that the effectiveness of Moscow's contacts with European partners is extremely low due to their, in his words, hawkish position. According to him, the proposals that Europe calls peaceful are in fact 'proposals for capitulation, for reparations,' that is, ultimatums to the Russian side. 'Europe often wants to be at the negotiating table in order to derail the negotiations,' the outlet quotes the ambassador as saying.
On Europe's relations with the US
Miroshnik also claims that Brussels, London, Berlin and Paris are 'greatly irritated' by the communication between Washington and Moscow. In his view, many European capitals do not want the US-Russia talks to lead to constructive agreements on settling the conflict 'into the fanning and sustaining of which European countries have invested so much.' The full version of the interview is published on Gazeta.Ru's website.
Context
Earlier, as the outlet notes, the German foreign minister called for the US and Europe to present a united front against Russia. It should be noted that Miroshnik's assessments quoted above are the position of a Russian diplomat expressed in an interview; the publication itself contains no response from the European sides or independent verification of these claims.
