West ‘only making things worse’ for Ukraine – Russian ambassador

Moscow is ready for dialogue, but has only received unacceptable proposals from Ukraine and its backers, Anatoly Antonov said

By refusing to understand Moscow’s demands and continuing to arm Ukraine, the US and its allies are only aggravating the conflict, the Russian ambassador to Washington has said.

Moscow is “adamant” that at some point it will achieve a peace deal with Kiev, despite resistance from the West, which “did everything to deprive Ukraine of its independence and turn it into an anti-Russian bridgehead,” Anatoly Antonov told Newsweek on Tuesday.

”Instead of hearing and understanding Russia's key demands – the denazification and demilitarization of Ukrainian thugs as well as rejection of Russophobia and NATO plans of Kiev – Washington and its satellites are only making things worse,” he stressed.

The US and the EU “funnel weapons to their puppets [in Kiev], calling this a ‘good investment.’ They turn a blind eye to blatant crimes of their ‘clients,’ who use lethal equipment to commit war crimes and terrorist acts against public infrastructure, civilians and even their own soldiers,” the ambassador added.

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The latter remark was an apparent reference to the shooting down of a Russian Il-76 transport plane with 65 Ukrainian POWs aboard last month, which Moscow says was deliberately carried out by Kiev with the use of a US-made Patriot missile system. Kiev refused to take responsibility for the attack.

According to Antonov, Russia “still doesn't forgo the dialogue” on Ukraine despite only getting “unacceptable” proposals from Kiev and its Western backers.

”They insist that there are no alternatives to the meaningless and one-sided… ‘Zelensky formula,' although these do not take into account the position of Russia and ignore aspirations of the Global South, which the neocolonizers are trying to delude and cynically use as mute observers,” he said.

The so-called ‘peace formula,’ which Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has been promoting since 2022, calls for Russia to withdraw from all territories claimed by Kiev, for Moscow to pay reparations, and for the formation of a war-crimes tribunal.

For a diplomatic solution in Ukraine to be found, the US and its allies would have to change their course regarding Russia, the ambassador insisted.

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”There is no prospect of talking to our country from the position of strength and sanctions pressure… The earlier America realizes this, the sooner the world will have a chance to return to a stable, sustainable and predictable path of development,” Antonov said.