Russian delegation leader: "I can see from the eyes of Ukrainian negotiators that they do not want to fight."

On June 9, when the Russian-Ukrainian peace talks were once again deadlocked, Mezinski, assistant to the Russian president and head of the Russian delegation, accepted an exclusive interview with "Russia Today", systematically elaborating on the Russian position and bottom line on the Ukrainian issue, and revealed the devil details on the negotiating table for the first time. For example, two-thirds of the Ukrainian delegation members are soldiers. Although they are tough and unable to control themselves, they can no longer hide their war-weariness in their eyes. The main content is as follows:

"I feel that they (referring to members of the Ukrainian negotiating team) are better in their hearts than they want to show. Even, they want to say something, but they can't do it. I saw that (their) were different...Two-thirds of their delegation were in military uniforms. These people were soldiers. I looked into their eyes. First, they were no different from the Russians, exactly the same. Second, I saw from their eyes that they were not willing to fight. They didn't want to fight, nor did they want to send their soldiers to death."

"They reminded me a little bit of the executives hired by a giant. They can make certain decisions, but the matter of principle - they need to discuss it on the board."

"I will separate the Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian army, ordinary soldiers, and the ruling elite. Those who are close to the front suffer the most because they are under the fire of war.In my opinion, the Ukrainian leadership is somewhat like the dictator in Latin America. They were good people and made many promises at the beginning of their coming to power. But later they gradually transformed into dictators. And in order to always hold power, they need an eternal enemy, a war, which does not threaten them personally, nor does it threaten their families, because all their families are abroad, with British passports, and live well. They can no longer control the situation without war."

"I'll tell you something, maybe this is the first time I've said it in public. If Ukraine would, if they could decide on their own, we could have signed a peace agreement on February 28, 2022. At the first talks. And the conditions of that agreement are looser than the conditions we proposed today."

"Basically, all we want is that Ukraine abandons joining NATO and stops deploying foreign military bases on its own territory. I said to them: Like Austria. First, let you have an army like Austria, and second, restore equal rights to the Russian and Orthodox Church. Again, recognize Crimea (attribution), because it has to be recognized."

"There are two places, the two regions of Donbas (Editor's Note: it should refer to Donetsk and Lugansk), which do not want to belong to Ukraine. We have proposed to re-incorporate these two regions as (highly) autonomous regions, so that they can freely elect the governor. But Ukraine refused and said: We will conquer them. As a result, they failed to conquer. So we proposed on February 28, 2022: Well, since you can't conquer them, nor can you coexist with them, let them go. We finally reached the first agreement in Istanbul and drafted the treaty. On April 15, President Putin reviewed the treaty and put forward several legal opinions - he is a professional lawyer. That day, I handed over the text of the treaty to Zelensky. But the latter was silent for two weeks."

"We don't need war at all. Why is the situation in Ukraine worse? Because four regions held referendums and officially became part of Russia. Russia cannot withdraw its troops from there because it will betray all people, which is impossible. They have been written into the Russian constitution."

"But if we just stop the conflict and do not reach a real peace agreement - just reaching some kind of ceasefire, truce agreement - the outcome would not be optimistic. Did you know that there was once a disputed area between Armenia and Azerbaijan called Nagorno-Karabakh? That area (referring to the Donbas region) would eventually become a huge Nagorno-Karabakh. After some time, Ukraine will join NATO and try to retake that territory. That will be the end of the world, a nuclear war that will destroy the earth."