Ukraine President's chief of staff in U.S. for talks on defence support, sanctions against Russia
A Ukrainian government delegation arrived in Washington on Tuesday to discuss military support and sanctions against Russia, a day after Kyiv and Moscow held their second round of peace talks.
Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff, said he arrived in Washington together with the first deputy prime minister and other government officials.
'We will actively promote issues that are important for Ukraine. Our agenda is rather comprehensive,' Yermak said on the Telegram app.
'We plan to talk about defence support and the situation on the battlefield, strengthening sanctions against Russia.'
Yermak said the officials would also discuss the bilateral minerals deal which gives the United States preferential access to new Ukrainian mineral projects and sets up an investment fund which could be used for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
Zelensky has been repeatedly urging the U.S. and President Donald Trump to impose tougher sanctions on Russia if Moscow stalls the peace talks.
Also on Tuesday, senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said that the point of holding peace talks with Ukraine was to ensure a swift and complete Russian victory.
'The Istanbul talks are not for striking a compromise peace on someone else's delusional terms but for ensuring our swift victory and the complete destruction of the neo-Nazi regime,' the hawkish deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council said on Telegram.
'That's what the Russian Memorandum published yesterday is about.'
Medvedev was referring to a set of Russian demands presented to Ukraine at talks in Istanbul on Monday.
They included handing over more territory, becoming a neutral country, accepting limits on the size of the Ukrainian army and holding new parliamentary and presidential elections.
At the talks, which lasted only an hour, the two sides agreed on a new prisoner-of-war swap and an exchange of 12,000 dead soldiers, but not on the ceasefire that Ukraine and its allies are pressing Russia to accept.
Medvedev added, in an apparent response to Ukraine's weekend strikes on Russian strategic bomber bases, that Moscow would take revenge. 'Retribution is inevitable,' he said.
'Our Army is pushing forward and will continue to advance. Everything that needs to be blown up will be blown up, and those who must be eliminated will be.'
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