Kremlin responds to Lukashenko: A ceasefire in Ukraine would not allow Russia to achieve its goals

In the statements of the Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko and in the appeal he addressed for ceasefire in Ukraine replies the Kremlin. As he characteristically emphasizes, this move on the part of Russia would not allow it to achieve its goals.

In his announcement Kremlin published on Friday (31/3) stressed: “A ceasefire in Ukraine would not allow Russia to achieve the goals of its ‘special military operation’ at this time.”

Its president is noted Belarus in his statements he pointed out that Moscow and Kiev should start negotiations for a lasting peace agreement.

“As far as Ukraine is concerned, nothing changes”

Speaking to journalists, the representative of the Kremlin Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow has taken Lukashenko’s comments to heart and President Vladimir Putin will discuss it with him next week. But he said Russia’s goals in Ukraine cannot currently be achieved through the ceasefire.

“As for her Ukraine nothing changes, the special military operation continues because today this is the only way we have to achieve our goals,” said Peskov, as reported by the Athens News Agency.

According to him, some points of the plan proposed by China to bring peace to Ukraine are “unrealizable at the moment due to the reluctance – or rather the inability – of the Ukrainian side to disobey its superiors and commanders.”

This was a reference to Moscow’s claims – unsupported by evidence – that Ukraine’s Western backers have ordered Kiev not to pursue a ceasefire.

“These commanders, as we know, are not in Kiev and insist that the war continue,” he underlined.

Russia has declared itself open to peace, but has made it clear that this can only be done on its own terms.

He argues that Kiev should accept the “new reality” on the ground, where Russia has taken over and claims to have annexed more than a sixth of Ukrainian territory.

Ukraine has demanded that Russia withdraw its troops as a condition for a peace deal and says any temporary truce would simply allow Russian forces to regroup for future military action.

Moscow says the US and its allies are using Ukraine as part of a “hybrid war” aimed at achieving a strategic defeat of Russia. For their part, Ukraine and the West counter that Russia’s claims are a baseless justification for its invasion.

The Kremlin also announced that Russia plans to exercise all its rights at the United Nations as it takes over the rotating presidency of the Security Council in April.

On Thursday, the US called on Russia to “act professionally” when taking on the role, saying there was no way Moscow could be excluded from the role.

All accredited foreign journalists can continue to work in Russia, Peskov said, referring to the arrest by the FSB on espionage charges of a Wall Street Journal reporter.

According to the Kremlin, Ivan Gershkovic carried out espionage “under the guise” of his journalistic status. Russia has not released any evidence to support the allegations – the first against an American journalist since the end of the Cold War – which the WSJ also denies.

“All journalists who have valid credentials here – I mean foreign journalists – can still practice journalism in the country. They do not face any restrictions and work well,” Peskov told reporters.

Peskov even repeated the claim that Gerskovich was “arrested in the act”, but refused to give details of the case, which is being kept secret even by the journalist’s legal team.

He called on Washington not to react by deporting Russian journalists working in the US.

While a number of Russian journalists have been jailed in the two decades since Putin came to power, foreign journalists who have been targeted by the authorities have simply been deported.