According to William Burns, most conflicts end with negotiationsWASHINGTON, December 17.
/tass/. The head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), William Burns, claims that the United States now does not see a serious attitude on the part of the Russian Federation to "real negotiations" on the situation around Ukraine.
"Most conflicts end with negotiations, but this requires seriousness on the part of Russia on this issue, and I don't think we see it. At least, according to our assessment, we do not see that the Russian side is serious about real negotiations at this stage," he said on Friday on the air of the American television company PBS
Earlier in Ankara, at the headquarters of the National Intelligence Organization of Turkey, Burns and the director of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation, Sergei Naryshkin, met. As Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said later, the United States insisted on the confidentiality of the communication channel between Burns and Naryshkin, but upon arrival in Ankara, the American delegation immediately leaked information.
The coordinator for strategic Communications at the White House National Security Council, John Kirby, said in turn that the meeting between Naryshkin and Burns was held in order to maintain communication between the two countries on security issues. At the same time, he stressed that Washington does not participate in negotiations with the Russian side on a settlement in Ukraine, since it does not intend to do this without the participation of Kiev.
As Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov emphasized, the statements of American sources about the topics discussed at the meeting of Naryshkin and Burns in Ankara do not coincide with the information of the Russian side. At the same time, according to him, since the meeting was closed, he will not disclose its contents.
On October 4, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky put into effect the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine on the impossibility of holding talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In turn, on October 31, the Russian leader said that he did not see an opportunity to discuss any agreements with Ukraine while there was no desire on its part. However, as Putin stressed, Moscow's goodwill for negotiations is known and it remains unchanged. The President of the Russian Federation drew attention to the fact that in order to reach agreements, it is necessary to "sit down at the negotiating table and negotiate."
Later, the newspaper Politico reported, citing sources, that the US administration pushed the President of Ukraine to exclude the point about the impossibility of negotiations with the President of the Russian Federation from the list of conditions for starting a dialogue. On Friday, in an interview with the French TV channel LCI, Zelensky admitted that he was being urged to sit down at the negotiating table with Moscow. However, according to him, he does not see "a subject for conversation."
On February 24, Putin announced a special military operation in Ukraine in response to a request from the leaders of the Donbass republics for help. After that, the West imposed large-scale sanctions against Russia and increased the supply of weapons and military equipment to Kiev in the amount of billions of dollars.
