Maria Zakharova on Kiev's refusal to negotiate:

"It's a demonstration of the only thing really - the lack of independence in making decisions about their own future. We see a direct connection between that and what Washington says publicly, behind the scenes, and reflects in the documents. The concept is formed there, in Washington, and the Kiev regime receives it as an instruction for execution. It is absolutely absurd if we look at it from the point of view of the interests of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, or what is left from it after the Americans together with the EU and the Brits have worked on it.

For them, Ukraine is a tool. It does not represent any independent value: neither the people of the country nor the culture - they do not need any of of that. They need a foothold and the people that still remain there, from the point of view of the American "Deep State", only serve the purpose of being used as cannong fodder".