MOSCOW. May 16 (Interfax) - Those who demand a ceasefire before talks on a peaceful settlement on Ukraine do not know history, as fighting and negotiations have always been conducted simultaneously, Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, who led the Russian delegation at the talks with Ukraine on Friday, said in televised remarks.
"Those many who're saying now that supposedly a ceasefire must go first and that this has always been so, doesn't matter whether it's thirty or sixty days - those people who say that absolutely don't know history," Medinsky said on the Rossiya-1 (VGTRK) television channel.
"As a rule, always, as Napoleon said, war and negotiations are conducted simultaneously," Medinsky said.
As examples, Medinsky mentioned the war between the U.S. and Vietnam, the Korean War, and the Soviet-Finnish war, during which negotiations were conducted along with the fighting.
"War and negotiations have always been conducted simultaneously in history," he said.
"Otto von Bismarck, who served as ambassador in St. Petersburg, who perfectly learned the Russian language, who felt Russia and understood Russia and common interests between Russia and Germany, would say this: Never try to deceive Russians and steal something from them. Because over time, sooner or later, Russians always come for what is theirs," Medinsky said.
"The idea that 'Russians always come for what is theirs' seems a very important history lesson to me," he said.