Ukraine considers Russia's repeated attempts to invite it to negotiations to end the war as a "smokescreen" in order to buy time and change the situation in its favour.

Oleh Nikolenko, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, commented on the statement of the spokeswoman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

He noted that so far the statements from Russia do not mention the withdrawal of troops from the territory of Ukraine, but only general ideas, like Moscow is "open to negotiations."

"The statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry is another smokescreen. Russian officials mention negotiations every time Russian troops are defeated on the battlefield. Moscow is not interested in restoring peace in Ukraine. By pretending to be ready for dialogue, the Russian Federation is trying to buy time to regroup its units, prepare the recently mobilised Russians, get more weaponry, eliminate the shortcomings of logistics, and then resort to new waves of aggression with new forces. We already went through this in 2014-2015," Oleh Nikolenko noted.

He emphasised that everything that Russia continues to do does not in any way indicate its interest in peace negotiations.

"I would like to remind you that Ukraine has repeatedly offered negotiations. But it has always received either a contemptuous reaction and a demand to obey the Kremlin's ultimatums or another act of genocide against Ukrainians," added the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

On the afternoon of November 9, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation announced that Russia was ready for negotiations with Ukraine "taking into account the realities that are emerging at the moment."