KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th December, 2020) Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said that he is saddened by top Russian diplomat Sergey Lavrov's reluctance to communicate with him.
"We do not see any desire from Sergey Viktorovich [Lavrov] to get in contact � neither in the Normandy format nor in the bilateral one ... Therefore, when he did not take my call, my request to talk about the escalation in Donbas, I certainly was not upset, I did not shed tears, but I am sad that there is no contact and no opportunity to talk," Kuleba told Ukraine's Novoye Vremya radio in an interview.
According to him, foreign ministers should have a communication channel, because this is how international relations work. Kuleba stated that he was always ready for a conversation with Lavrov, believing that they had something to talk about.
"I am by no means anti-Russian, I am 100 percent pro-Ukrainian. As the minister of foreign affairs, by definition, I cannot be against any country. Because we have to deal with every country in one way or another � either as with a friend or an enemy or an unreliable or reliable partner, but we have to do deal with. So I strongly reject the accusations that I am anti-Russian," Kuleba argued.
Russian-Ukrainian relations took a nosedive in 2014 over the Donbas conflict. The Ukrainian parliament designated Russia as an "aggressor state" in January 2015 over alleged interference in Ukraine's internal affairs and involvement in the conflict in its breakaway region. To this day, Kiev also insists that Crimea is an occupied territory.
Russia has repeatedly denied the allegations, saying that it is not a party to the Ukraine conflict and wants the country to overcome its political and economic crises. Moscow states that the referendum on Crimea rejoining Russia was held democratically and in line with international law.
