MOSCOW: The Russian Kremlin said on Monday that France and Germany were showing “no desire” to participate in mediation on the Ukrainian conflict and praised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s offer to organise talks.
“Ankara takes a different position from that of Paris and Berlin and has declared its readiness to continue mediation efforts,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“[French President Emmanuel] Macron and [German Chancellor Olaf] Scholz — they have shown no desire to listen to Russia’s position or participate in mediation efforts,” he added.
Over the weekend Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu called his American, French, Turkish and British counterparts. Shoigu conveyed “concerns about possible provocations by Ukraine with the use of a ‘dirty bomb’”, according to the Russian side.
Shortly after, Washington, London and Paris issued a joint statement “rejecting Russia’s transparently false accusations about Ukraine”.
Meanwhile, Erdogan has aimed to retain open dialogue with Russia and Western countries in Russia’s military offensive and emerged as a key mediator.
He has played a role in the only two tangible agreements between Moscow and Kyiv since the beginning of the offensive. Turkey helped broker the deal that allowed grain exports to resume under the UN’s aegis in July. Erdogan also played a role in a prisoner swap in September, one of the largest exchanges.
Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke to the defence ministers of the US, UK, France and Turkey over the phone on Sunday to discuss the situation in Ukraine.
Shoigu spoke with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Sunday for the second time in three days and held a flurry of calls with three other counterparts from NATO countries.
Moscow provided no details on Shoigu’s conversation with Austin, which came after the two men spoke on Friday for the first time since May. Its readouts on the other calls said Shoigu had said the situation in Ukraine was worsening.
Russia’s defence minister warned of “further, uncontrolled escalation” in the war in Ukraine in phone calls with his French, Turkish and British counterparts.
Shoigu also conveyed concern that Ukraine could detonate a “dirty bomb” – a device laced with radioactive material. Russia has provided no evidence to substantiate such a claim.
Ukraine has denied that it is planning to use a “dirty bomb” against Russian forces after the Russian defence minister’s telephone calls with NATO counterparts.
“Russian lies about Ukraine allegedly planning to use a ‘dirty bomb’ are as absurd as they are dangerous,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on social media.
Previous Russian assertions that Ukraine might resort to using banned weapons, such as, biological arms have stirred concerns in the West that Moscow might be preparing to stage “false flag” attacks and blame them on Kyiv.
According to the Pentagon’s readout of the call between the US and Russian defence ministers, Austin told Shoigu he “rejected any pretext for Russian escalation”. Austin also “reaffirmed the value of continued communication”.
The White House National Security Council in a statement said it rejected Shoigu’s false allegations that Ukraine is preparing to use a dirty bomb on its own territory. “The world would see through any attempt to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation,” it said. – Agencies
