File Photo: Mykhaylo Podolyak said via social media on May 28 that Moscow is lying when it accuses Kyiv of refusal to negotiate but said blunt force is the only way to thwart the Russian invasion. (Photo courtesy of Mkhaylo Podolyak s official Twitter account)
For weeks now, the Kremlin has been "trying to convince Ukraine to enter into negotiations", Mykhaylo Podolyak told AFP, as the sixth month of the war draws to a close.
During such talks, Moscow wanted to "freeze the conflict while preserving the status quo in the occupied Ukrainian territories", he added.
Russia "sends its proposals via various intermediaries", he said, without naming them, as Kyiv currently has no political contact with Russia.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who met Russian leader Vladimir Putin at the beginning of August, has on several occasions said he is ready to act as an intermediary.
Erdogan visited Ukraine on Friday for the first time in six months.
Ukraine's position was that, in fact, Moscow did not really want serious peace talks, said Podolyak. Instead, he said, they were trying to get "an operation pause for its army" before launching a fresh offensive.
Kyiv has rejected any negotiated solution for Ukrainian territories under Russian occupation. It wants to recapture that territory, as well as territory held by Russian separatists in the east -- and Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
"All other scenarios... only represent a dangerous operational pause before a new round of war," said Podolyak.
"Ukrainians are going to resist as long as it takes," he added.
"It's an existential war, we don't have any other solution. To abandon the fight means not only the destruction of the Ukrainian state, but also that of all its civilians."
The first talks between the two sides in the early weeks of the war did not produce any concrete results.
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