On Tuesday morning, Dmitry Peskov stated that Ukraine must replace Volodymyr Zelenskyi in order for Russia to be willing to negotiate with them, according to state news agency Ria Novosti.

Peskov is a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the remarks came in response to Ukraine’s decision to refuse to negotiate with Russia during Putin’s presidency.

Ukraine first declared this position last week, after Russia annexed Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya. But on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Zelenskyi formalized this by signing a decree declaring that Ukrainian citizens would no longer be allowed to negotiate with Putin.

Negotiation

Both NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre have repeatedly stated that all conflicts at one point or another end up at the negotiating table.

While the world’s richest man, Tesla founder Elon Musk, recently proposed a negotiated solution between Russia and Ukraine, which ended in a direct confrontation with President Zelenskyj asking his followers whether they prefer Elon Musk supporting Ukraine or Elon Musk supporting Russia. . .

Musk’s proposal was scuttled by a number of Ukrainian government officials on Monday night, but lauded by Kremlin spokesman Peskov on Tuesday afternoon, who believed it was a step in the right direction that people like Musk wanted to reach a peaceful solution.