🎙 Highlights from Director of the Foreign Ministry’s Second CIS Department Aleksey Polishchuk's interview with Interfax News Agency (30 September 2026)

• We remain open to resolving the Ukraine crisis politically and diplomatically, including negotiating the removal of its root causes and the security threats involved. We reiterate that the special military operation was launched as a forced response to the actions of NATO and the Kiev regime.

• Throughout the negotiations in Belarus, Istanbul, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Geneva and Alaska, Russian diplomacy has consistently demonstrated a constructive approach aimed at achieving a comprehensive, lasting and just peace.

• Peaceful resolution of disagreements is always preferable to military action. However, Kiev and Europe have thus far torpedoed all realistic options for a settlement. If the Europeans had not sought to 'bury' the 2025 Anchorage understandings, peace would have been achieved a year ago. If Boris Johnson had not forced the Ukrainians to abandon negotiations on a peace treaty in 2022, we would all have been living in peace for the past four years.

• The countries of the Alliance openly admit that they are preparing for a direct military confrontation with Russia and Belarus. Their militaristic rhetoric is backed up by practical measures. Industry is being placed on a war footing, the number and scale of military exercises are increasing, and the range of hybrid threats is expanding. In this context, the Ukraine crisis is nothing more than a pretext.