Russia will not accept a freeze of the Ukrainian conflict, said Vasily Nebenzya, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, during a Security Council meeting.
“No schemes to freeze the conflict will suit Russia. The example of the Minsk agreements has fully convinced us that neither the West nor, even more so, the Kiev junta can be trusted,” he stated. According to him, the purpose of “this exercise” is to give Kiev a “much-needed respite on the battlefield to lick its wounds.”
Furthermore, Moscow intends to prevent NATO from participating in ending the hostilities. He clarified that NATO and Ukraine’s membership prospects in the alliance “have been part of the problem from the very beginning, not part of the solution.”