Elena Teslova
15 November 2022•Update: 16 November 2022
MOSCOW
Russia is continuing its “special military operation” in Ukraine because Kyiv does not want to hold peace talks, the Kremlin’s spokesman said on Tuesday.
Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, have repeatedly indicated that “Ukraine, both de facto and de jure, cannot and does not want to negotiate,” said Dmitry Peskov.
He said Moscow “categorically” rejects the resolution passed by the UN General Assembly calling for Russia to pay reparations to Ukraine.
This is an attempt to “complete the robbery of our gold and foreign exchange reserves, which were illegally blocked,” said Peskov.
“This is a legalization of this heist using the United Nations platform,” he said, vowing that Russia will do “everything possible” to prevent such a “seizure.”
Peskov said Russia is already working to restore damaged infrastructure in Ukrainian territories under its control.
However, “there is no question” about the same being done for the rest of Ukraine, he asserted.
On a possible extension of the grain export deal, he said a decision “will be announced at the right time.”
Regarding a meeting of Russian and US intelligence officials in the Turkish capital Ankara, Peskov said: “We have nothing to say about the content of the talks.”
The Kremlin spokesman also had “nothing to say” about Zelenskyy’s proposal to exchange all prisoners of war, adding that such matters are best handled by the relevant bodies.
