Russia denies that there are negotiations with the US about the war in Ukraine and says that they are “specific contacts”

MADRID, March 17. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The Russian government has denied this Thursday that there is a process of negotiations with the United States in the framework of the military invasion of Ukraine and has clarified that these are “specific contacts” in which various issues of bilateral interest are addressed.

“Right now there is no active negotiation process (with the United States), of course,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zajarova said, as reported by the Russian news agency TASS.

“We maintain separate contacts on different problems that arise and that are not even problematic. They are specific contacts,” he said, before emphasizing that Moscow bet for months on “building a negotiation process with the United States on several tracks,” including security and tensions around Ukraine.

Zajarova’s words came a day after US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan held a conversation with Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, in which he was the first high-level contact since the start of the invasion on February 24.

During the conversation, Sullivan took the opportunity to reiterate to Patrushev the “firm and clear” opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, “unjustified” in the eyes of Washington, and stressed that Washington will continue to impose “costs” to support Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

“If Russia is serious about diplomacy, Moscow should stop attacking Ukrainian cities,” said Sullivan, who made a direct allusion to the “consequences and implications” that the possible use of chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine would have, without entering in details, according to a statement released by the White House.