Trust, but believe

Instead of ambassadors in Kyiv and Ukraine in Moscow, temporary attorneys will be represented. This was stated by the head of the political department of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Alexei Makeev in an interview with Radio Freedom.

"The situation in the Russian embassy will be just this: a temporary attorney is appointed - this is a senior diplomat who will instruct to maintain the infrequent contacts that are today in Russian -Ukrainian relations," Makeev said.

According to the diplomat, for any improvement in Russian-Ukrainian relations, Russia must "stop aggression, illegal occupation." “That is, it’s not about personalities, we are talking about the content,” Makeev said, commenting on the possible appointment of Mikhail Babich by the Russian Ambassador to Kyiv.

At the same time, the representative of the Foreign Ministry emphasized that now we are not talking about a complete breakdown of diplomatic relations with Russia. "We must understand that today there are three million Ukrainians on the territory of the Russian Federation. Every day, more than 300 Ukrainians are applying to our consulate in Moscow for consular assistance, legalization of documents, demanding documents. There are Ukrainians, they must be taken care of," Makeev said.

Meanwhile, the assistant to the Russian president, Yuri Ushakov, said that Russia will send Ukraine an Agriman request to appoint a new ambassador if he receives a signal of readiness to accept the proposed candidate from Kiev.

“We believe that this is our fundamental position - that in Kyiv and Moscow, diplomatic missions should be led at the level of ambassadors,” Uchakov emphasized. “If the Ukrainian side prefers a reduced level of diplomatic missions, then, probably, it will be so.”

The new candidate for the position of Russia's ambassador in Kyiv is configured for positive work, Ushakov noted. “We invited Kyiv as an ambassador of a very experienced politician who not only never allowed any anti -Ukrainian statements, but who is really configured to constructive work to settle the many problems,” the president’s assistant said. “You will not expect confirmation of the surname from me, because this is not accepted in diplomatic practice.”

The former ambassador of Russia to Kiev Mikhail Zurabov, who held his post since 2009, was removed by decree of Vladimir Putin on July 28 . The State Duma stated that the new head of the Russian diplomatic mission would be appointed no earlier than in October, after the new composition of the lower house begins to work. Nevertheless, the next day, the State Duma Committee on International Affairs supported the candidacy of the president’s plenipotentiary in the Volga Federal District Babich to the post of ambassador.

At the same time, Russia, in violation of the diplomatic protocol, publicly reported plans to appoint Babich before the coordination of his candidacy with the Ukrainian side.

In the evening, on Wednesday, the deputy head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Elena Mirkal said that the issue of coordinating the candidacy of the new ambassador was removed from the agenda on the initiative of Kiev. She also expressed confidence that the absence of an ambassador would not affect the development of relations between Kiev and Moscow.

On Thursday, the Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavel Klimkin noted that Kiev has not yet considered Babich’s candidacy , because "today we are not talking about candidates or any specific things, but about creating a positive dynamics around the entire context of Russian aggression, around everything that is happening in the Donbass."

“We need a positive dynamics in order to move on, and the issue of personalities is a secondary question,” the minister concluded. “That is why the question of the candidacy of the new ambassador is not at the priority of the current agenda.”

On the same day, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin is still seeking from Ukraine consent to the appointment of Babich as an ambassador. "The Russian side proposed and still offers a well -known option," Peskov said.