Russia and Ukraine were once close to signing a peace agreement but external forces controlling Kyiv did not let do it, speaker of Russia’s Federation Council (upper parliament house) Valentina Matviyenko said on Tuesday at a meeting with Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi, TASS reports.
"By the way, we were concurrently negotiating a peace agreement with Ukraine. We withdrew troops from Kyiv, Kharkov and an agreement acceptable for Ukraine and Russia was practically ready," she said.
"Its key term was that Ukraine would remain an off-bloc, neutral state, like Austria for example, that it would be a non-nuclear state. Ukraine advanced its own conditions. But, regrettably, those who exercise external control did not let sign this agreement," she added.
A Federation Council delegation led by Matviyenko is on an official visit to Mozambique from May 30 to June 1.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in an interview with Anadolu agency on Tuesday that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky told his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, that he wanted to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
