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Ukraine’s Foreign Minister on negotiating with Russia: Prigozhin negotiated, and then he ceased to exist
European Pravda, Ukrainska Pravda
Friday, 25 August 2023, 21:43
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/08/25/7417153/

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has commented on the impossibility of negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow, recalling the mysterious plane crash involving Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who also negotiated with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

SOURCE:
European Pravda, citing Kuleba at a press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Kyiv on Friday

DETAILS:
Speaking about the possibility of Ukraine and Russia sitting down at a negotiating table, Kuleba noted that this “is a very peculiar question”.

“We recently saw Mr Prigozhin, a long-time friend of Putin’s, attempt to negotiate a ‘truce’ with him. They sat down at a table, it was shown on television. Then boom! - and it seems Prigozhin has ceased to exist,” he added.

Kuleba says this situation demonstrates “the price of negotiating with Putin”.

“But this applies, of course, to antagonistic cases. And those countries that can speak to the Russian Federation with full respect for Ukraine’s principled position on territorial integrity – we appreciate such efforts to maintain contact with the Russians and to force them to conclude that this war has no right ending for them,” he explained.

In this context, the foreign minister thanked Türkiye for its efforts to end Russian aggression as soon as possible and establish a “just and lasting peace”.

BACKGROUND:

On Wednesday evening, Russian media and the Federal Air Transport Agency reported that a plane crashed in Russia. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group, was among the passengers. It is reported that all 10 people on board were killed, including Prigozhin’s deputy Dmitry Utkin, alias Wagner.

British intelligence believes that the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin will have a deeply destabilizing effect on the private military company.