Putin is a liar – no one should be fooled into believing he wants real peace, warns Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister

UKRAINE'S deputy foreign minister has warned “liar” Vladimir Putin cannot be trusted and does not want a ceasefire.

Mariana Betsa told Flying Eze the tyrant has no real interest in brokering lasting peace in the region.

But she warned Ukraine will not accept any territorial compromises in a deal, insisting Kyiv does not want “peace at any price”.

Daria Zarivna, an adviser to the Ukrainian president's chief of staff, also told Flying Eze that the thousands of children abducted by Russia must be returned as a condition of any agreement.

Donald Trump said he “trusted” that Putin wants to end the war – but Kyiv and its Western allies have accused the Kremlin of stonewalling negotiations.

Washington has been trying to hash out terms of a deal between Ukraine and Russia in a bid to end Putin‘s three-year invasion.

But the Kremlin has been insisting on a list of conditions and demands – delaying the process.

Kyiv quickly agreed on an initial proposal for a full 30-ceasefire earlier this month – but this was quickly rejected by Putin.

Ukrainian official Mariana rubbished suggestions Putin wants the war to end and said “no one should be fooled by Russia”.

She lambasted Moscow as she warned: “We cannot trust Russia. Russia lies and they know how to lie.”

Mariana told Flying Eze: “No one should believe Russia's words or Russia's statements in the media actions, we should look into actions.

“We had really intense discussions with our US colleagues at the beginning of March regarding the ceasefire.

“Ukraine engaged in good faith.

“We agreed for the ceasefire for the truce in the sky for the truce in the sea.

“We agreed for the ceasefire in the front. It was 11th of March and Russia they just put conditions.

“Well Ukraine again showed its commitment to peace commitment to comprehensive just and lasting peace.

“What did Russia? They started bombing us even with big intensity and so many people getting killed throughout this month.

“I think the answer is that Russia doesn't really want peace in Ukraine and shows no remorse, no actions towards achieving this goal.”

On Thursday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky met with key allies at the so-called “coalition of the willing” summit in Paris.

He called on the US to be stronger against Russia as leaders including Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron agreed now is not the time to lift sanctions against Moscow.

Sir Keir insisted Putin must be given a deadline to make progress on a Ukraine ceasefire, and accused him of “playing games”.

He said Putin was attempting to drag the Trump-initiated process out to allow his forces time to continue assaults on Ukraine.

But Mariana warned Ukraine would not compromise on any eventual peace deal, vowing to return all abducted children and not concede any land.

She said: “It is important to know that Ukraine will never accept territorial compromises unjust peace.

“It will never accept the situation where our prisoners of war, illegally detained persons and children are not returned.

“They should return all of them and children should return unconditionally.

The level of sinisterity behind this is horrible.

Daria Zarivna

“I would like to highlight that we will not rest if Ukrainian people do not have justice served to them.

“This is extremely important that it's not just peace at any price.

“It should be comprehensive just and lasting peace for Ukraine with accountability for Russia and Russian criminals.”

Presidential advisor Daria warned the return of kidnapped Ukrainian children is imperative not only for their safety – but as it could become a “threat to global security”.

Tens of thousands of Ukrainian children have been forcibly moved into areas under Moscow‘s control since the war began.

They have been assigned Russian citizenship and “adopted” by Russian families.

Many are forced into sinister camps where they are starved, tortured and “brainwashed” into becoming Russian citizens.

Meanwhile, some 1.6 million Ukrainian children are living in territory controlled by Putin's fighters.

Daria said: “They are trying to change their names, their personal data, their whereabouts.

“The famous case of Margarita, this was a 10-month-old girl from Kherson Children's Home, which was brought under the medical prescription to Moscow.

“Then she was adopted by Sergey Mironov, one of the top allies of Putin.

“Her name was changed to Marina. Her place of birth was changed from Kherson to Podolsk.

“When I had an opportunity to address this issue in the Security Council, I showed the birth certificate, the Ukrainian birth certificate of this girl, and the Russian birth certificate.

“It was good to use evidence like this, because the whole scale of crime becomes very obvious.

“This girl was only 10 months old when all this happened, so she didn't even realise who she was, what kind of origin she had, and her whole life was just destroyed and changed.

“The level of sinisterity behind this is horrible.”

Kyiv has repeatedly vowed to bring every child home – calling the abductions a war crime that meets the UN treaty definition of genocide.