Ukraine's Foreign Ministry has called false the claims of the British newspaper Financial Times that the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Andriy Sibikha expressed readiness to discuss territorial concessions, quotes him as saying BBC.
In an extensive FT publication entitled "Ukraine faces its darkest times", the British publication writes about the complex situation for Kiev at the front and the prospects for negotiations with Russia, which the publication says are increasingly being discussed in Ukrainian society and even in the armed forces.
Among other things, FT journalists claim, citing unnamed diplomats, that Sibiha "is using private meetings with his Western counterparts during his first visit to the United States in his new post to discuss potential compromise solutions".< /p>
At the same time, "compared to his predecessor, he was more pragmatic about the possibility of negotiating a security exchange in the territory," wrote the authors of the FT article.
The newspaper quoted one of the diplomats, according to whom "we are talking more and more openly about how to end all this and what Ukraine will have to give up in order to get a permanent peace treaty". According to this source, this is "a huge change from what it was even six months ago, when such talk was a taboo subject.
However, the official representative of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Giorgi Tikhii said that the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry did not hold such talks.
"I attended all of Foreign Minister Sibiha's meetings in New York, and at none of them were there any proposals, discussions or even hints of territorial compromises," Tihii said.
"On the contrary, the minister's position remains steadfast and he insisted on elements of it behind closed doors. There can be no compromise with regard to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine," Tihiy added.
He said: "The Financial Times source's information is simply false and we wonder who has an interest in spreading such false claims."