Following the attack right after the grain agreement, Moscow wants to negotiate on other issues as well

KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO — SUNDAY, 24 JULY 2022, 17:56

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that Moscow is prepared to negotiate with Kyiv "on a wider range of issues", but complained that the resumption of the negotiation process does not depend on the Russian side.

Source: Lavrov at a press conference in Cairo on Sunday, as reported by Interfax

Quote: "Regarding the connection between this agreement [the Ukrainian grain export deal - Interfax] and other aspects of the situation in Ukraine... we are in no way prejudiced against resuming negotiations on a wider range of issues, but this does not depend on us.

The Ukrainian authorities, starting with the president and ending with his numerous, innumerable advisers, repeatedly say that there will be no talks until Ukraine defeats Russia on the battlefield."

Details: Lavrov again voiced the propaganda thesis that in their unwillingness to negotiate, the Ukrainians are allegedly "being encouraged by their Western handlers".

"The longer they continue to demand that Ukraine fight to the bitter end, and we all understand what kind of end and whose it will be, the more people will die and the longer the current situation will continue, which does not benefit, first and foremost, the Ukrainian people or the Ukrainian state," the Russian minister said in an attempt to persuade Ukrainians to negotiate.

Background:

•         On 23 July, Russian troops fired missiles at the seaport of Odesa - 2 missiles were shot down by the Air Defence Forces and 2 more hit the port's infrastructure.
•         The day before, on 22 July, an agreement was signed in Istanbul on unblocking Ukrainian ports for grain export.
•         Commenting on this situation, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia always find ways of not keeping its promises, and that is why Ukraine cannot be a country where there is a "frozen" war. 
•         Zelenskyy believes that freezing a full-scale war with Russia will only encourage it to escalate the conflict.
•         On 22 July, Mykhailo Podoliak, adviser to the head of the President’s Office and a member of the Ukrainian group negotiating with the Russian Federation, said that now there are no grounds for resuming negotiations with the aggressor state.