Vladimir Putin could use any peace talks with Ukraine as an excuse to rearm and recruit Russian troops, U.K. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told Sky News on Sunday.
Cleverly was commenting on one of the Russian dictator’s first public mentions of a potential peace deal with Ukraine.
“Negotiations need to be real, they need to be meaningful,” he said. “They can’t just be a fig leaf for Russian rearmament and further recruitment of soldiers, whether that be from the Wagner Group or trawling prisons in Russia.”
Cleverly also said the content of peace talks and the threshold that might be met to bring peace “has got to be decided by the Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian president.”
“They’re the ones whose sons and daughters are being killed in this,” he said.
However, he was skeptical about whether any serious peace talks would take place.
“I’m not really seeing anything coming from the Russian side that gives me confidence that Vladimir Putin is entering these talks in good faith,” Cleverly said.
