Russia to attend fresh talks as Ukraine demands peace proposals

Miami Herald

a day ago

Russia said it's sending a delegation to Istanbul Monday for a second round of talks with Ukraine amid last-minute wrangling over Kyiv's insistence that Moscow outline its peace proposals before any meeting.
The warring sides have tussled over the parameters of negotiations after Turkey hosted the first direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine since the early months of the war on May 16. Moscow didn't accept a U.S. proposal for a 30-day ceasefire and used the meeting to repeat its maximalist demands to end its invasion, now in its fourth year.
'Both memorandums, the Russian and Ukrainian ones, as we hope, will be discussed in the second round of talks,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday, the state news service Tass reported.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Kyiv is in favor of pushing forward with negotiations, but has been awaiting a memorandum from Moscow laying out its position before a follow-up meeting takes place - a position the Kremlin said was 'unconstructive.'
'We want to finish this war this year,' Sybiha told reporters in Kyiv, adding that he's open to a ceasefire of varying durations that must precede full talks on a last peace. 'Ukraine is open to discussing it directly with Russia.'
The U.S. envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, urged Kyiv to attend the gathering in Turkey, at which he said the U.S., U.K., France and Germany would also take part on the sidelines with the goal of narrowing the differences. He also urged Moscow to deliver the memorandum.
'You need to show you're serious,' Kellogg told U.S. network ABC News. Russia's reported demand for a written pledge that NATO won't expand further eastwards, including into Ukraine, is a 'fair concern,' Kellogg said.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who this week has expressed frustration with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin over the stalled bid to end the war, has threatened new sanctions after Moscow launched its largest drone barrage of the war.
However, on Wednesday he signaled he'd hold off on new penalties to preserve the chance for a deal with Putin. Asked by a reporter if the Russian leader is interested in a peace agreement, Trump responded: 'I can't tell you that, but I'll let you know in about two weeks.'
Turkish diplomacy
The next round of Russia-Ukraine talks could pave the way for a meeting of Putin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Trump, Turkey's top diplomat said on Friday.
'We think it may be possible that the Istanbul talks culminate with a meeting between Trump, Putin and Zelenskyy' hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said at a press conference in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv.
Putin is prepared to engage in high-level talks, but only if direct negotiations achieve concrete results, Peskov said, according to Tass.
The Russian leader's choice of presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky to head Russia's delegation has dampened expectations of a breakthrough. He led Moscow's negotiators at a round of talks in Istanbul soon after the 2022 invasion began. That ended in acrimony over Russia's demands, including restrictions on the size and scope of Ukraine's army. Kyiv has denied an assertion from Putin that Ukraine accepted the demands.
The Russian delegation for a second round of Istanbul talks will remain unchanged, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on state TV Thursday.
Amid the latest Russian missile and drone attacks, Zelenskyy has pressed allied partners for $30 billion this year to boost domestic weapons production. He also proposed a meeting between himself, Trump and Putin aimed at breaking the deadlock in peace talks. Trump said he would join a hypothetical summit 'if necessary.'
Germany this week agreed to provide Ukraine with €5 billion ($5.7 billion) in military aid as part of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's pledge to help Kyiv build long-range weapons to hit targets on Russian territory. The German funds will flow to the war-battered nation's production infrastructure, with a 'significant' number of weapons to be built this year, the Defense Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
Merz, who earlier said that there were 'absolutely no range limits' on Ukrainian forces making deep strikes into Russian territory, vowed to intensify cooperation with Kyiv as European allies pile pressure on Russia to engage in talks to end the war.
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-With assistance from Aliaksandr Kudrytski.
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