Before sending a delegation to Istanbul for bilateral discussions next week, the Kremlin said it expected the two sides to talk about truce conditions at the scheduled meeting.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said at a press conference in Kyiv on Friday that his country needed assurances that the Kremlin was serious about wanting to end the war.
It is crucial to have a document in advance so that the delegation who will attend has the authority to discuss the relevant positions, he said, to ensure that the next planned meeting is substantive and meaningful.
He claimed that there hasn’t been a document outlining Russia’s proposals for Ukraine so far.
The two parties’ first direct discussions since May 16 were held in Istanbul, Turkey. Without a breakthrough on a ceasefire, the discussions ended in less than two hours. The two conflicting parties did come to terms with a prisoner exchange that later occurred and for which swap documents that included potential peace roadmaps were agreed.
Following the discussions, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, complained that sending a junior delegation from Russia that was not authorized to sign a ceasefire, acting as a “sign of disrespect.”
Heorhii Tykhyi, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, reported on X on Thursday that Russia’s delay in disclosing its ceasefire plan implied that it was “likely filled with unrealistic ultimatums.”
Sybiha stated at the news conference on Friday that Kyiv wanted to end the war along with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.
He stated, “We want to end this war this year, and we are interested in establishing a truce, whether it be for 30 days, 50 days, or 100 days.”
Russia and Ukraine are willing to talk directly about this. At the most recent meeting of our delegations with the Russian side, we made this clear.
Turkiye suggests a summit for leaders
If the talks went well, Fidan suggested that Zelenskyy, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and US President Donald Trump might meet in the afternoon.
According to Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, any such meeting could only occur if the bilateral negotiations yielded any desired outcomes.
He stated that Istanbul would be the location of both parties’ proposed agreements and that details would not be disclosed.
In response to Trump’s envoy Keith Kellogg’s assertion that Moscow’s concerns about Kyiv joining the alliance were legitimate, Peskov added that Russia was pleased that the US was understanding Putin’s position on Ukraine joining NATO.
Source: Aljazeera
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