Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu said Moscow would not negotiate a ceasefire with Ukraine while Ukraine’s troops were stationed in the Kursk region in southwestern Russia.
According to information from the Tass agency, Shoigu addressed the issue in an interview with the Rossiya-24 TV channel this Tuesday (10).
“Until we drive them out [as tropas da Ucrânia] from our territory, we will naturally not conduct any negotiations with them,” he said.
Shoigu, a longtime ally of dictator Vladimir Putin, was fired in May as defense minister, which he had held since 2012, following reports that the Kremlin was unhappy with the handling of the war in Ukraine and corruption scandals in the ministry.
Shoigu’s statement contradicts Putin’s remarks, who last week said that Russia had “never” opposed negotiations with Kiev.
Putin has imposed as demands for peace with Ukraine that Kiev agree to concede more territory than it has occupied (i.e., give up the entire area of all four regions occupied by Russian troops, which it does not fully control) and that Ukrainians give up their plans to join NATO. Ukraine has made starting talks conditional on the withdrawal of Russian troops from the country.
In August, Ukrainian forces launched an offensive in southwestern Russia and have stepped up drone strikes in border regions and Moscow.
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