Russia is not ready at the moment to negotiate on peace with Ukraine, said the ambassador of Germany in Moscow, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, in a comment published yesterday in the German newspaper "Boehner General-Anzeiger", BTA reported.
"At the moment, the Russian side does not show readiness for negotiations, but insists on exaggerated preconditions,", he explained.
When Russian President Vladimir Putin says he is willing to talk to Ukraine only if it first fully withdraws from all areas he says Russia has already annexed, including those it does not control militarily, " "then it is clear that there is no seriousness behind it," added Count Lambsdorff, who has been the German ambassador to Russia for about a year.
The work of the German embassy in Moscow is aimed at having a presence so that action can be taken if Russia's attitude changes, he added.
"Because one day Russia must also realize that with this war it is achieving much less than it set out to be at the beginning, that it is doing serious damage to itself internationally and is in a war economy that is completely overheated and will not be sustainable", the ambassador believes.
Count Lambsdorf said that the current entry of Ukrainian ground troops into Russia's Kursk region has unnerved Russia. It was an unpleasant surprise for the border troops, the secret services, the military, the civil defense forces, and also for the local population that Ukrainian troops could succeed in such an action, he added.