Ukraine Dismisses Secret Russia-Germany Talks in Baku as Irrelevant to Peace Efforts

Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has dismissed the significance of a reported secret meeting between former senior Russian and German officials in Azerbaijan, saying it has no role in the actual peace process.

Speaking to journalists on July 22, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said the reported discussions had no official mandate from Ukraine.

His comments came after Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that a closed-door meeting involving former officials from Russia and Germany had taken place in Baku between July 12 and 14, according to Bloomberg.

“The meeting is as secret as it is unimportant,” Tykhyi said. “Some people, whose names are barely searchable anymore, meet and talk about something. The Ukrainian side has not authorized any of them to represent it in any way. The significance of such meetings for the real peace process is close to zero.”

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War in Ukraine

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Earlier reports said the unofficial German delegation included Ronald Pofalla, former chief of staff to ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Matthias Platzeck, the former minister-president of the German state of Brandenburg.

The Russian participants were reported to include Valery Fadeyev, head of Russia’s Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, and Viktor Zubkov, chairman of Gazprom’s board of directors and a former Russian prime minister.

Aliyev said Azerbaijan’s territory had been used for the meeting without the government’s prior knowledge. He added that Azerbaijani officials were not present and therefore could not comment on the substance of the discussions, but said available flight data confirmed that the meeting had taken place.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry reiterated that the reported gathering has no bearing on official diplomatic efforts aimed at ending Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.

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