OREANDA-NEWS Ukraine has refused to negotiate with Russia. This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, RIA Novosti reported.

At the same time, Kiev does not want to negotiate with Moscow. The Russian side assumes that the Ukrainian authorities are thus carrying out "the will of Anglo-Saxon leadership," the Russian foreign minister said.

Lavrov added that Russia was ready to "work honestly" on the basis of the proposals made by the Ukrainian delegation. According to the diplomat, so far, the draft treaty prepared on the basis of those proposals has been at Kiev "without movement, for almost a month and a half."

Previously, Lavrov said that it was the West that banned Ukraine from negotiating with Russia back in March.

At the end of March, Russian-Ukrainian talks took about three hours in Istanbul. The meeting resulted in agreements that implied Ukraine's neutral and non-nuclear status, backed by international guarantees, and the non-use of force with regard to Crimea and "certain regions of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts".