Ukraine Rejects Iraq’s Offer to Serve as Mediator in Russia Talks

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Iraq offered to help try and end the war between Ukraine and Russia. However, when Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba visited Baghdad, he said his country wouldn’t join any peace talks until Russia withdrews from their territory.

The Kremlin wants Ukraine to accept that Russia is in control of Crimea, a territory that Russia supposed in 2014, and also agree to the annexation of four other parts of Ukraine – Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia- in September. But Ukraine has refused these requests and said it won’t talk with Russia until its military forces are removed from all these areas.

Kuleba, a Ukrainian official, recently visited Baghdad in Iraq. This was the first time a Ukrainian minister had gone there in 11 years. Fuad Hussein from Iraq welcomed him and mentioned how their country has dealt with fighting conflicts and hosting important talks between different opposing countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Riyadh and Tehran used to have talks in Baghdad, but the talks stopped. After that, it was decided that China would help them talk again and this eventually led to both of them deciding to become friends and start a relationship again.

On Monday, the Iraqi Prime Minister, Hussein, spoke in a press conference. He said that Iraq knows a lot about how to talk with countries that don’t get along and is ready to help them make peace. He also said that continuing the war isn’t just dangerous for the two countries involved but it can hurt the world as well.

In this part of the world, people usually buy their grain from Ukraine. But since there has been a war, prices have gone up and people are having trouble buying food now.

Ukraine believes that Iraq can help build bridges among different countries. But, Russia is not letting this happen and they are making up the biggest problem. Ukraine needs Russia to stop their war and leave so that peace can be achieved in the region. The US thinks Iran has given drones to Russia for fighting in Ukraine but Iran says it happened before the war started.

Iraq and the United States have very strong links. The American government has a lot of control over Iraq’s money system, for example all of Iraq’s money is kept in a special account with the U.S. Federal Reserve. Ukraine’s leader wanted to get closer to Iraq and that is what he was doing by visiting Monday, as part of making new relations between these two countries.