MOSCOW. April 26 (Interfax) - Moscow welcomes Beijing's efforts to organize a negotiation process between Russia and Ukraine, but notes Kiev's antagonism toward "prudent initiatives" on settling the crisis, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.
"We have taken note of the Chinese side's willingness to undertake efforts to arrange a negotiation process. We see that our principled approaches are widely aligned with the provisions of the position document published by the Chinese Foreign Ministry on February 24," Zakharova said in reply to a question from the media that was published on the Russian Foreign Ministry website in the wake of a phone call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky on Wednesday.
"At the same time, we believe the problem is not a lack of good plans. For the time being, the Kiev regime has been demonstrating its antagonism towards any prudent initiatives aimed at a political and diplomatic settlement of the Ukraine crisis, and making its eventual consent to negotiations conditional upon ultimatums that contain deliberately unrealistic demands," Zakharova said.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying said earlier on Wednesday that Xi had a phone call with Zelensky.