Ukraine FM: 'won't settle' for dialogue with rebels

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Monday refused direct negotiations with rebels in the east of the country.

Speaking during a news briefing with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Kuleba said the direct talks with representatives of rebel-controlled Donetsk and Luhansk are not included in the Minsk agreements brokered by France, Germany and Russia in 2015.

Kuleba added that any conversations with these rebels would allow Russia to transform itself from the party of the conflict to the mediator by insisting on the direct talks.

Earlier on Tuesday Kuleba said that Ukraine has received more than 1,000 tons of military aid worth around 1.5 billion US dollars.

International efforts to defuse the standoff over Ukraine intensified Monday, with French President Emmanuel Macron holding talks in Moscow and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Washington to coordinate policies as fears of a Russian invasion mount.

The concentration of an estimated 100,000 Russian troops near Ukraine has fueled Western worries that it heralds a possible offensive.

Russia has denied any plans to attack its neighbor, but is urging the U.S. and its allies to bar Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations from joining NATO, halt weapons deployments there and roll back NATO forces from Eastern Europe. Washington and NATO have rejected the demands.

Kuleba said that while Ukraine was "ready for everything", even war, "until then, we'll keep an absolutely cold head and we will stay focused."

IMAGE: AP