Maria Zakharova on the Ukrainian delegation in Istanbul: What language did you think they were speaking? Ukrainian? This

The Ukrainian delegation at the negotiations with Russia in Istanbul spoke in Russian, and the opening words were read by the Ukrainian negotiators in English. This was stated at a briefing by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova, she commented at the request of the TASS agency.

"In Russian. The Russian delegation spoke in Russian. There was simultaneous translation into several languages - English, Turkish and Ukrainian. It is not clear for whom they translated into Ukrainian, because the Ukrainian delegation spoke in Russian. They spoke in Russian“, the diplomat noted.

"I can also tell how everything happened. The Ukrainian delegation read some introductory part, they had some piece of paper, because they read it out loud in text. But again, not in Ukrainian. They read the introductory speech in English.“

According to Zakharova, the speculation with the Ukrainian language during the negotiations reflects Kiev's course of deceiving its own population.

"What language did you think they were speaking? Ukrainian? All this is another production. I mean all these declarations by representatives of Bankova (the administration of the Ukrainian president - TASS) about how the population should forget the Russian language, that Ukrainian should be introduced everywhere. All these fines, all this persecution, all this harassment in schools, institutes, universities, all this destruction of books, all this modeling of audio and visual content in Russian. All this is aimed at misleading the citizens of Ukraine, just as they misled the citizens of Ukraine when [Vladimir] Zelensky promised them peace only if he was elected. Just as they deceived the citizens of Ukraine when they told them how wonderful it would be for them in the European Union, if only they refused to interact with Russia. It's the same here“, the diplomat continued.

She emphasized that Ukrainian citizens are simply being robbed.

"They are also taking away the Russian language. And they themselves (the Ukrainian authorities) even speak Russian during official negotiations“, Zakharova summarized. - Yes, this very translator was sitting there. Who was he translating for? This is completely incomprehensible. Because the Ukrainian delegation spoke Russian.

The negotiations in Istanbul

On May 16, negotiations between Russia and Ukraine were held in Istanbul. After the meeting, Moscow and Kiev agreed to exchange prisoners on a "1000 for 1000" basis, to present in detail their vision for a possible future ceasefire, and to continue the negotiation process. The head of the Russian delegation, presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, stated that the Russian side was satisfied with the outcome of the meeting.