UK's Johnson Against Any Attempt to Hold Talks, Normalize Relations With Russia

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Outgoing UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday during his visit to Kiev that he opposes any attempt to hold talks and normalize relations with Russia over its military operation in Ukraine.

"We must fight any creeping attempt to normalize relations with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin... We also know that this is not the time to advance some flimsy plan for negotiation with someone who is simply not interested. You can't negotiate with a bear while it's eating your leg, and you can't negotiate with a street robber who has pinned you to the floor," Johnson told a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev.

Johnson added that negotiations between Kiev and Moscow would be impossible even if Putin offered them.

"There is no negotiation, there is no offer. Vladimir Putin is not even offering a negotiation. And even if he were, it's hard to see how you could, how the people of Ukraine could negotiate under current circumstances," Johnson said.

On February 24, Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine after the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk appealed for help in defending themselves against Ukrainian forces. In response, Western countries have rolled out a comprehensive sanctions campaign against Moscow.

Turkey has emerged as the lead mediator between Russia and Ukraine, hosting several rounds of negotiations since Russia launched the operation. Talks hit a roadblock after Zelensky said Russian troops must give up the territories under their control.

In July, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said that the Ukrainian negotiation delegation did not maintain any contacts with Russia after inking the grain deal in Istanbul, and that if the Russian-Ukrainian talks take place, the conditions for them would be completely different.