Czech foreign minister warns world community of Putin’s negotiation trap

In the face of pressure from US President Donald Trump for a ceasefire in Ukraine, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský has said that Europeans must impose their conditions for possible negotiations.

As reported by ntv, Lipavský said in an interview with Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland newsroom that Russians were trying to impose on the West the idea that the Ukrainian government was illegitimate.

"We must force Putin to accept Zelenskyy for negotiations and as the president of a sovereign nation. This must be one of our conditions for negotiations," Lipavský said.

"Putin, his foreign minister Lavrov and some propagandists say that they do not want to negotiate with Ukraine. They are talking to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz or the American president, but not to the Ukrainians," he said.

Lipavský noted that this is a trap that Russia is trying to set for its opponents.

"They want us to believe that the Ukrainian government is not capable of negotiating. We must not fall into this trap," he stressed.

Donald Trump's administration is known to be keen to bring Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine to an end as soon as possible, although it acknowledges that this could take months.

In the first days of his presidency, Trump threatened Russia with massive sanctions and tariffs if it did not agree to a quick peace deal. He also said that he would seek lower oil prices to end the war.

During a discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump placed the responsibility on Russia to concludea peace deal to end its full-scale war against Ukraine.