Kiev's backers want "breathing space" for Ukraine to "heal its wounds" before continuing the conflict, Dmitry Polyansky has told RT

Calls for a temporary ceasefire by Ukraine's European backers are merely a ploy aimed at giving Kiev some respite before continuing to fight, Russia's permanent representative at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Dmitry Polyansky has told RT.

Amid the ongoing discussions around the US-drafted peace roadmap for Ukraine in recent weeks, multiple European countries have renewed calls for a short-term cessation of hostilities as a precondition for any talks between Kiev and Moscow. Russia has repeatedly ruled out the scenario, saying that Ukraine would use it to replenish and rearm its tattered military. Russian officials have insisted on a comprehensive and long-term settlement that would address the root causes of the conflict.

Speaking to RT on Tuesday, Polyansky said that "when people in Europe speak about a ceasefire, they have in mind giving some breathing space to the Kiev regime, which is in agony right now, and which is facing a very hard situation, with their fronts crumbling and strongholds falling one after another." 

According to the diplomat, who served as Russia's deputy ambassador to the United Nations between 2018 and 2025, the real objective of Kiev's European backers is to ensure that Ukraine is able "heal its wounds" to continue the conflict from a better position.

Polyansky cited the example of the failed Minsk agreements signed in 2014 and 2015, which were ostensibly intended to reconcile the post-coup government in Kiev with anti-Maidan forces in Ukraine's east. Germany and France were guarantors of the accords.

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former French President Francois Hollande later acknowledged that the agreements had been used primarily to buy time for Ukraine to strengthen its military.

Commenting on European officials' claims about a supposed Russian threat, Polyansky characterized these narratives as a "zombieing campaign." According to the Russian diplomat, European elites portray Russia as a boogieman in a bid to "disguise their own mistakes... [that are] creating problems for their societies, for the taxpayers, for common Europeans."