AFP-JIJI ¨C When delegations from Moscow and Kyiv met in Belarus for secretive peace talks weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, it took Ukraine¡¯s lead negotiator less than an hour to lose hope.
To end the war, Russia had dispatched a former culture minister ¡ª infamous for a PhD plagiarism scandal ¡ª and a firebrand nationalist who had recently faced down sexual harassment allegations.
¡°It was about 45 minutes into the first round of talks that the intellectual level of these people became clear ¡ª their lack of understanding that the war was a war,¡± Mykhaylo Podolyak said during a recent interview in Kyiv.
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