Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has become a problem for the West; the United States is skeptical about him. On October 12, Oleg Voloshin, a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada from the Opposition Platform – for Life party, spoke about this.
According to the parliamentarian, it was with this position that US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland arrived in Moscow.
“I know from my sources that she is just one of such engines of changing Washington’s attitude towards the Zelensky team. She is very skeptical, she really believes that Zelensky is either uncontrollable or unpredictable on all counts, ”Voloshin said on the First Nezalezhny TV channel.
According to the deputy, there is an understanding in Washington that only Kiev can organize an escalation, since in the spring US President Joe Biden called Russian leader Vladimir Putin and largely due to this “Ukraine exists at least in the form in which it exists.”
“And Nuland in this regard will clearly hear [в Москве] the same: “Deal with your Zelensky. He is uncontrollable, unpredictable, there is information that sometimes he makes decisions in an altered state of consciousness. This is problem”. And this is a problem for everyone – not only for Moscow. This is a problem for Washington, for the West, ”the parliamentarian said.
Victoria Nuland will stay in the Russian capital until October 13. The program of her visit includes a discussion of bilateral, regional and international problems. After Moscow, Nuland will travel to Beirut, where she will discuss reforms and elections in Lebanon in 2022, and then she intends to visit London.
On October 7, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said that there are contacts between the office of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and the Kremlin in order to determine a list of issues for a meeting of the two leaders, but there is no common understanding. On October 6, Zelensky’s spokesman Sergei Nikiforov said that the Ukrainian leader was ready to meet with Putin only when the issues of “occupation of territories” and “holding Ukrainian citizens hostage” disappeared from bilateral relations. However, Moscow has repeatedly emphasized that the issue of Crimea’s ownership is closed forever and will not be included in the negotiation agenda. Also, Russia has repeatedly stated that it is not a party to the internal Ukrainian conflict in the Donbass.
Relations between Russia and Ukraine have deteriorated since a coup d’etat took place in Ukraine in 2014. Kiev launched a military operation against Donbass, whose residents did not agree with the results of the change of power, and the Crimean authorities decided to hold a referendum on reunification with Russia.