Kiev stalling peace talks – Kremlin
The Ukrainian authorities have shown no desire to continue dialogue with Russia despite prior agreements reached in Istanbul to set up working groups, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.
“During the last meeting in Istanbul, the delegations put forward proposals to create working groups to discuss all modalities on key issues. Now, a pause has occurred. The pause is due to the Kiev regime’s unwillingness to continue the dialogue,” Peskov said during press briefing.
Peskov was responding to a question from journalists about Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who said last week that he would like to speak with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky.
“Vladimir Alexandrovich [Zelensky] needs to calm down - there is a good proposal on the table,” Lukashenko said Friday, adding only that it had earlier been discussed with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Direct talks between Moscow and Kiev resumed in Türkiye early this year. Three rounds of negotiations, the last of which was conducted in July, have not yielded any major breakthroughs, but have allowed the two sides to make certain progress with regard to various humanitarian issues. Russia and Ukraine have held several major prisoner swaps, as well as exchanged the bodies of fallen soldiers.
Moscow has repeatedly stated it is open to a peaceful resolution of the hostilities at any time but has maintained that any deal must address the roots of the conflict and respect the realities on the ground. This includes the status of the former Ukrainian territories that joined Russia after public referendums. Kiev, on the other hand, is seeking a complete and unconditional ceasefire, security guarantees and has territorial claims of its own that it insists must be addressed in any talks.
