Russia calls French ambassador's Ukraine peace proposal views unrealistic

MOSCOW, April 25. /TASS/. The views of French Ambassador to Russia Nicolas de Rivieres regarding the possibility of resolving the Ukrainian conflict based on proposals from the Coalition of the Willing are completely unrealistic, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a Telegram post. The ministry noted that, in a recent interview, the French ambassador presented assessments of the current state of bilateral relations that were detached from reality and a "highly distorted view" of the Ukrainian crisis. "Nicolas de Rivieres' ideas about the possibility of resolving the Ukrainian conflict based on the French-initiated Coalition of the Willing, designed to uphold the interests exclusively of the bankrupt Kiev regime and its sponsors from the European 'war party,' appear highly fanciful. We must set the record straight here. Neither France nor other EU countries are currently participants in the negotiation process. Moreover, all actions by Paris and other Europeans are aimed at derailing any positive progress on the Ukrainian crisis within the framework of trilateral contacts involving the US," the ministry said. "On the part of France, we do not see constructive proposals aimed at finding mutually acceptable solutions, but rather attempts to launch parallel initiatives, the results of which could be imposed on Russia in a definitive manner. Such an 'undiplomatic' approach, completely detached from the actual situation on the ground, is doomed to failure from the start," the Foreign Ministry stressed. It noted that the French ambassador's interview was "riddled with hackneyed Western cliches" about alleged Russian aggression and Ukraine being a "victim". "Nicolas de Rivieres knows firsthand about France's participation in the Normandy process, which, as former French President Francois Hollande later explained, served merely as a smokescreen for the French leadership, allowing the Kiev regime to buy time. A regime that, for eight years, taking advantage of the leniency of its Western sponsors, freely killed civilians in Donbass. Thus, by portraying Ukraine as a 'victim of aggression,' the French authorities are attempting to absolve themselves of responsibility for the collapse of the Minsk agreements and to justify, including in the eyes of their own voters, their destructive role in the acute conflict that erupted in Ukraine," the ministry stressed.