Britain rules out negotiations with Russia before withdrawing Troops from Ukraine

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said on Sunday there could be no talks with Russia over Ukraine, considering that the starting points for negotiations with Moscow are based first on withdrawing its troops from its northern neighbor.

"They cannot negotiate with a gun to the head of the Ukrainians," Truss said in a statement, expressing her distrust in the Russians' efforts to negotiate the crisis with Ukraine.

She expected the conflict between Moscow and Kyiv to continue for "a number of years," calling on the world to prepare for Moscow's move towards using worse weapons in its operations against Ukraine.

With regard to the military field situation in Ukraine, the British Foreign Secretary indicated that the intelligence information shows that the Ukrainian army continues to resist the advance of Russian forces, which prevented major shifts in the field during the last night.

Trass explained that sanctions announced by her country on Russia would take time to degrade not only the Russian economy but also its "war machine," noting that a target list of Russian business leaders has been drawn up and the Downing Street will target private planes of these people, their property, and other assets within Britain every few weeks.

The British Foreign Secretary's statements followed the announcement of the Kremlin that a Russian delegation headed to Belarus to conduct negotiations with Ukraine, despite the refusal of Kyiv authorities to host Minsk for these negotiations after considering the latter a party to the military operation targeting its territory, proposed to be held in Warsaw, Budapest, Istanbul, or Baku.

Source: QNA