Interview by Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov to «Al Arabiya»

There's been a clear shift in the United States' stance on the conflict which has gone on for over three years. When could we see it resolved and will there ever be peace between Russia and Ukraine?

Peace could have been achieved long ago. We never ever refused to conduct peace talks with Kiev. Peace negotiations started immediately after the beginning of the special military operation and during March 2022 the two sides - Kiev and Moscow - almost reached a peace accord. The draft was already based to a large extent to textual suggestions of the Ukrainian side and Ukraine initialed this draft. Certain fine tuning was required, but basically the two sides agreed on main points. Unfortunately after that the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson intervened. He visited Kiev and prohibited Zelenskyy to sign a peace deal.

 He insisted on the need to continue war fighting, promised weapons, money etc. The same with the United States. Recently Victoria Nuland confessed that Ukrainians consulted with Washington on a peace deal and Washington recommended not to sign it. Regarding Boris Johnson relevant facts were revealed by the chief Ukrainian negotiator Davyd Arakhamia who is very close to Zelenskyy. So a real chance to achieve peace three years ago was missed, and it was not the first case of this kind. 

Your colleague a journalist just a few minutes ago said that Russia violated the Minsk Agreements. It's a lie. Actually we engaged in relevant negotiations together with Angela Merkel, François Hollande in 2015 and an agreement was reached, and it was endorsed by the UN Security Council. But it was never implemented by Ukraine and western countries were very tolerable to this sabotage.

 One and a half year ago Angela Merkel confessed why it happened, and François Hollande confirmed that her assessment was accurate. For France and Germany the Minsk Agreements were not about peace. They were about buying time for Ukraine to get prepared for a large-scale war.

 Now to a large extent due to the change in the US position we are closer to the beginning of negotiations. We never ever refused to negotiate. The problem is that President Zelenskyy issued a decree prohibiting any peace talks with Russia. So the first step for him is to cancel his own decision. We are ready to negotiate with Ukraine, we are ready to negotiate with European states if necessary.

The fact that only two sides, Russia and the United States, were present at the recent talks in Riyadh was very simple. We discussed ways and means to normalize bilateral relations, to normalize the functioning of diplomatic missions, discussed some economic issues. Ukraine was just one topic on the agenda among many others and of course there was no place for Ukraine or European states to be present there. But as soon as negotiations on peace settlement start, Ukraine will be at the negotiating table. President Vladimir Putin, Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed it a number of times. And this is the difference between our position and the position of our Western opponents and Ukraine.

You might remember that for two years Western countries and Ukraine organized numerous meetings on the basis of so-called «peace formula of Zelenskyy». Russia was never invited to such meetings, it was stupid, and we are not going to repeat the same mistake.

But Ambassador, you said Russia wasn't invited to those talks, but much of Europe currently feels like you are the aggressor. Emmanuel Macron has said that Russia was the aggressor and that on February 24, 2022 you launched the ground invasion on Ukraine. And this is why the likes of European allies rallied around Ukraine, like Boris Johnson offering weapons and help to the country. Do you see where the Europeans stand on these talks?

I don't agree with President Macron. In fact, Russia was not an aggressor. As one of my Arab colleagues said, you always need to look at the root causes of a conflict. And indeed, this conflict started long before February 24, 2022. It started in 2014, when with the assistance of Western countries, a coup d'état took place in Kiev. And immediately, the new government in Ukraine started, in violation of the Constitution, to use Ukrainian army against civilians in Donbass. It lasted for eight years, and there was no progress in implementing the peace agreements, which could preserve territorial integrity of Ukraine and bring about peace to the territory of Ukraine. It was not our fault.

But other people would argue that in 2024, Putin illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula. That's how it was seen around the world.

You can have your personal view on this subject. But for me, what is most important is the fact that 96% of the Crimean population voted at a referendum to rejoin the Russian Federation. I remember that there were slogans on the streets: «Back Home to Russia» etc. And I believe no one would argue that it was the will of the local population. It was not an annexation. It was a referendum, which was caused by the violation of human rights of the Russian minority by the new Ukrainian authorities after the coup d'état in 2014. People simply defended themselves, their families, their rights as human beings. It was not an aggression.

I can speak on this topic for very long. Unfortunately, the format of this interview does not allow me to do that. But I could present a number, a great number of facts. For eight years people in Donbass were killed by the Ukrainian army, more than 10,000 people, 150 children in Donetsk - the youngest of them was two months old. It could not last forever. And since there was continued shelling of civilians on the one hand, and sabotage in what regards implementation of the peace agreement, there was only way ahead for us to intervene militarily. But it was not a so-called unprovoked invasion. It was provoked for a long time.

Ambassador, I want to ask you about Dmitry Peskov, he said Russia has a lot of rare earth metals that the US needs, responding to a similar ongoing deal between Zelenskyy and Trump. Does Russia actually have these to trade?

This topic doesn't fall within my competence, and it is of no interest for me as a diplomat. You heard what Dmitry Peskov said, you heard what President Vladimir Putin said, I fully trust the assessment. President Putin offered a possibility of economic cooperation between Russia and the United States in what regards rare metals. Why not, if it's mutually beneficial?

But for me, the main point is that we need to conduct peace negotiations. We don't need a ceasefire, because we know from the previous experience that when we were naive and admitted that cessation of activities could bring lasting peace, our partners behaved in a wrong manner. So, Minister Lavrov yesterday said that operations will continue until the relevant, durable results in the peace process are achieved.