Russia rejects reports of secret talks with US over Ukraine

MOSCOW

Russia on Wednesday rejected media reports that claimed Moscow and Washington held secret talks over Ukraine in April.

Speaking with the Russian Pervy TV channel, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova denied reports circulating in the US media that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had a meeting with former US officials to establish an informal communication channel.

She said these “fake” reports have been spread “intentionally” to sow discord in Russian society, adding that such information will keep appearing in the future.

“This topic will be constantly ‘afloat,’ precisely in order to rock us, including from the inside, to sow doubts about what we are talking about, to say or show that (despite the US) is supplying weapons (to Ukraine), Russia is allegedly still ready to conduct some kind of semi-legal negotiations with them, even under such conditions. This is not true,” she stressed.

Zakharova said a discussion that took place between Lavrov and a group of former US officials on the sidelines of his visit to the UN in April is presented as “the secret talks over Ukraine.”

According to the spokeswoman that conversation focused on the current situation in global affairs while Ukraine’s issue was not touched upon.

• Maria Zakharova
• Russian Foreign Ministry
• Russian-Ukrainian peace talks