Rumors that Washington is pushing the Ukrainian leadership to negotiate with the Russian Federation are an absolute lie, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink has said.

"This is an absolute lie. I can only reiterate what our President and Secretary of State and other high-ranking officials have said. They have said that only Ukrainians and the democratically elected leader of Ukraine, President Zelensky, can decide when and how this conflict should end and when and how to start negotiations. My assignment, and our collective U.S. assignment, is to support the Ukrainians in every way so that they have the strongest possible position at the negotiating table, and we do this by providing the most powerful position on the battlefield," Brink said on the national telethon on Friday.

So the ambassador commented on reports in the Russian media that Washington was allegedly pushing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to sit down at the negotiating table with the Russian Federation.