Ukraine keeps Russia guessing over talks, US senator warns Moscow of sanctions
KYIV/MOSCOW: Ukraine resisted US and Russian pressure to commit to attending another round of peace talks on Monday (Jun 2), saying it first needed to see Russian proposals, while a leading US senator warned Moscow it would be "hit hard" by new US sanctions.
US President Donald Trump has urged Moscow and Kyiv to work together on a deal to end their three-year-old war, and Russia has proposed a second round of face-to-face talks with Ukrainian officials next week in Istanbul.
Kyiv has said it is committed to the search for peace, but that it was waiting for a memorandum from the Russian side setting out their proposals.
"For a meeting to be meaningful, its agenda must be clear, and the negotiations must be properly prepared," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X on Friday after hosting Türkiye's foreign minister for talks in Kyiv.
"Unfortunately, Russia is doing everything it can to ensure that the next potential meeting brings no results," he said, citing the lack of a document from Russia.
Delegations from the two countries met in Istanbul on May 16 but the session yielded little other than an agreement for a prisoner exchange.
Zelenskyy said he and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Friday discussed in a phone call the conditions under which Ukraine would participate in the Monday meeting proposed by Russia.
"There must be a ceasefire to move further toward peace. The killing of people must stop," Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.
"We share the view that this meeting cannot and should not be empty," Zelenskyy said.
He did not commit Ukraine to attending on Monday, although he said he and Erdogan did discuss the possibility of organising a four-way meeting with the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye and the United States.
Erdogan said it was important that Russia and Ukraine send strong delegations to Istanbul and added that a leaders' meeting could contribute to the peace process, the Turkish presidency said.
Some Republicans in the US Congress and White House advisers have urged Trump to finally embrace new sanctions on Russia to put pressure on Moscow.
Influential Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on a visit to Kyiv the Republican-led US Senate is expected to move ahead with a bill on sanctions against Russia next week.
Graham, who met Zelenskyy in Kyiv, told a news briefing he had talked with Trump before his trip and the US president expects concrete actions now from Moscow.
Graham accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of trying to drag out the peace process and said he doubts the Istanbul meeting will amount to more than a "Russian charade."
"The game that Putin has been playing is about to change. He is going to be hit, and hit hard by the United States, when it comes to sanctions," Graham said.
Trump told reporters on Friday that both Putin and Zelenskyy were stubborn and that he had been surprised and disappointed by Russian bombing in Ukraine while he was trying to arrange a ceasefire. Trump made no mention of sanctions.
The war, the biggest in Europe since World War Two, began with a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Expectations for the talks are modest because the positions staked out so far by the two sides are far apart and work between them has yet to begin in earnest on narrowing the gap.
Nevertheless, both Kyiv and Moscow are keen to demonstrate to Trump they support his peace efforts. Kyiv wants more US military aid, while Moscow hopes Trump will ease existing economic sanctions on Russia.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian delegation would be travelling to Istanbul and ready for talks with Ukraine on Monday morning.
"Everyone is focused on the direct Russia-Ukraine negotiations. A list of conditions for a temporary truce is being developed," Peskov said.
Moscow has said its delegation for Istanbul would be led by Vladimir Medinsky, a Kremlin aide who led the previous round on May 16.
NO MORE NATO ENLARGEMENT?
Reuters reported this week that Putin's conditions for ending the war include a demand that Western leaders pledge in writing to stop enlarging NATO eastwards.
Trump's special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said on Friday that Russia's concern over the eastward enlargement of NATO was fair and Washington did not want to see Ukraine in the US-led military alliance.
Commenting on Kellogg's statement, Peskov said: "We are pleased that these explanations by the president are understood, including in Washington."
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told reporters in Kyiv that the next step after talks in Istanbul would be to try to host a meeting between Trump, Putin, and Zelenskyy.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Kyiv needed to see the Russian proposals in advance for the talks to be "substantive and meaningful," without spelling out what Kyiv would do if it did not receive the Russian document or a deadline for receiving it.
"We want to end this war this year, and we are interested in establishing a truce, whether it is for 30 days, or for 50 days, or for 100 days," he said.
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