"The White House cannot escape responsibility for prolonging the conflict and killing innocent people. However, the United States continues with its maniacal persistence to adhere to the tactics of war of attrition by exhausting everyone - Ukrainians, Russians, Europeans as well as ordinary Americans," Antonov told Sputnik.
"There are several reasons for this, one of them being the presence of economic interest. The desire to ‘skim the cream’ through the mass sale of military equipment and LNG supplies: Only business, nothing personal."
The ambassador said the United States is waging war with Russia "until the last Ukrainian." He also pointed out that US officials often say they will not talk to Russia about Ukraine without the participation of Ukraine and that it is up to Kyiv to decide at what point to sit down at the negotiating table.
"It is not clear what these words have more of - hypocrisy or banal unwillingness to admit one's own mistakes," the ambassador said. "The decision-making center on the fate of Ukraine is located somewhere, but not in Kyiv. Everyone could see this in March when one shout from Washington was enough for the [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky regime to nullify all the agreements reached during intensive contact between the two countries.
On Sunday, The Washington Post reported that the Biden administration was privately encouraging Kyiv to demonstrate its readiness to negotiate with Moscow.
Ukraine and Russia held several rounds of peace talks since the start of war on February 24. The last round concluded in Istanbul on March 29 without any results, and the talks have since been stalled.
In late September, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow was still open for talks with Kyiv and called on Ukraine to stop the hostilities. Zelensky said that Kyiv was ready for dialogue with Moscow, but only if another president came to power in Russia. The Kremlin responded that Moscow would wait for a change in the stance of Ukraine's current president or his successor.
ZZ/PR