© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian International Minister Dmytro Kuleba and his Bulgarian counterpart Teodora Genchovska attend a information convention in Sofia, Bulgaria, April 19, 2022. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov/File Picture
(Reuters) – Ukrainian International Minister Dmytro Kuleba, in an interview made public on Monday, stated there had been occasions when he had felt the urge to “punch within the face” his Russian reverse quantity Sergei Lavrov in talks through the early stage of Moscow’s invasion.
Kuleba’s temporary remarks had been a part of an hour-long casual interview with a Ukrainian video blogger specializing in matters starting from cooking to hobbies and Ukrainian soccer.
When requested, as a part of a sequence of rapid-fire questions, about his most tough set of negotiations, Kuleba stated: “Probably the most tough talks are these through which you are feeling merely that you just need to go and punch your reverse quantity within the nostril, however you actually cannot try this.
“And I can say that this occurred two or 3 times. One event was with Lavrov in (the Turkish resort of) Antalya in spring of 2022.”
Ukrainian and Russian negotiators met for a number of rounds of talks within the early weeks after the February 2022 invasion — first close to Ukraine’s border with Belarus and later in Turkey.
Kuleba stated on the time that the talks in Turkey had been tough and handled a ceasefire and arranging humanitarian corridors. No settlement was clinched in these talks and there have been no negotiations since.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejects talks with Moscow till Russian troops are withdrawn from the marginally lower than 20 p.c of Ukraine they now maintain. Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin says Russia is prepared for talks however has vowed to pursue what Moscow calls its “particular army operation”.
In Moscow, Russia International Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova stated Kuleba’s newest remarks underscored the incompetence of Ukraine’s management.
“And that’s the drawback: uneducated, aggressive folks had been recruited beneath the guise of serving as ministers to wreck Ukraine for American cash,” Zakharova advised the day by day Izvestia.
“Maybe he belongs in a no-holds-barred bout relatively than the international ministry?”