Russia says Ukraine's denial to negotiate peace worsens prospects for preserving statehood

In a major development, Russian State Duma Speaker and former aide to President Vladimir Putin, Vyacheslav Volodin, warned Ukraine's refusal to negotiate a peace deal with Moscow could impact the prospects for preserving Ukrainian statehood.
While speaking at deputies of the People's Assembly of the LPR on Thursday, the TASS News agency reported that the Duma Speaker accused the United States and its allies of hindering the peace negotiations between the two countries engaged in the brutal war for the last four months. According to Volodin, refusal to negotiate for peace would not affect Russia's plans and actions against Kyiv.  

"The refusal of the Kyiv regime and their Western masters from peaceful negotiations does not affect the plans and actions of our country in any way. But this refusal directly affects the prospects for preserving Ukrainian statehood as such. In fact, by these actions, the Kyiv regime creates the conditions for Ukraine to disappear as a state in the future," the Russian news agency quoted Volodin as saying. 

Further, the Russian Duma's Speaker claimed that the Biden administration and Brussels rejected all offers of Moscow to normalise the ongoing circumstances. He even accused the US of executing experiments with biological weapons in laboratories in Ukraine -- a claim that was reiterated by several Russian leaders since the onset of the war. On multiple occasions including, in the United Nations, the US formally refuted the claims made by the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, regarding any biological weapons projects in Ukraine.

"On this path, they eventually reached experiments with biological weapons in laboratories created on the territory of Ukraine. They encouraged the claims of the Kyiv regime to possess nuclear weapons of mass destruction," Volodin said.

Volodin accuses West of supporting genocide in LPR and DPR

According to the Duma's Speaker, the West openly supported the policy of genocide against the citizens of the LPR and DPR. Notably, Putin signed a decree recognising the independence of breakaway regions Donetsk and Luhansk, merely two days before announcing a formal "military operation "against his neighbouring country. He again accused the West of driving Ukraine to the battle zone by injecting more weapons into the already war-ravaged nation. He opined that the West's action could push Kyiv into military debt that eventually takes generations for Ukraine to pay.

Image: The State Duma