Russia offered Ukraine on Wednesday a second session direct talks in Istanbul, Next Monday, in order to send him a ” memorandum Supposed to expose his conditions for a lasting peace agreement.
“Our delegation, directed by (Vladimir) Medicalis ready to present this memorandum to the Ukrainian delegation and to provide the necessary explanations during a second cycle of direct negotiations incorporating in Istanbul on June 2, “announced the chief of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrovin a press release.
For the time being, kyiv has not reacted to this proposal, made after the American president Donald Trump had adopted in recent days a harder tone with regard to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Poutine.
Vladimir Medinski had led the Russian delegation during the May 16 talks in Istanbul. These were the first direct peace discussions between kyiv and Moscow since those of spring 2022, at the start of the large -scale Russian attack against Ukraine.
These exchanges in Türkiye had not led to a breakthrough to find a diplomatic outcome in the conflict but the two camps had committed to carrying out an exchange of prisoners of unprecedented magnitude, 1,000 people against 1,000 people, which ended last weekend with 303 prisoners of each camp on Sunday.
While thanking his “Turkish partners”, the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday hoping that “all those who are sincerely interested” in “the success of the peace process” support the organization of this second cycle of negotiations.
Friday, the chief of diplomacy of the Kremlin assured that his country worked on this memorandum exhibiting his position and would transmit it soon to kyiv.
Everyone camps on their positions
For the time being, the official positions of two camps seem to be difficult to reconcile: Russia requires in particular that Ukraine foreshadows forever to join NATO and gives it the five regions whose annexation it claims, unacceptable conditions for the Ukrainian authorities.
Earlier, Moscow had dismissed the proposal of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday of a Trilateral summit with Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump To advance discussions.
“Such a meeting must be the result of concrete agreements between the two Russian and Ukrainian delegations,” said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov. Vladimir Putin had already ignored Volodymyr Zelensky’s invitation to meet him in Türkiye in mid-May.
Zelensky wishes to be invited to the top of NATO in the Netherlands
On a visit to Berlin to maintain himself with the German Chancellor, the Ukrainian head of state accused Russia of hindering the talks of peace by seeking “reasons not to stop the war”. Friedrich Merz has announced that his country would help kyiv produce both in Ukraine and Germany, long -range missiles.
The question of the restrictions of reach was in the past a delicate subject, the Ukrainians wanting to use Western weapons to strike depth military targets in Russia but its allies fearing to cause an escalation by authorizing it.
Volodymyr Zelensky also urged NATO to invite Ukraine to its next summit in the Netherlands, arguing that its absence would be “a victory for Putin”. On Tuesday, the Ukrainian president called Washington new sanctions against Russia, especially against the energy and banking sectors.
Russian air traffic disrupted by Ukrainian drones
Russia, which occupies about 20 % of the Ukrainian territory, underwent one of the largest air attacks on Tuesday to Wednesday since the start of the war, involving nearly 300 Ukrainian drones.
This raid notably targeted Moscow and disrupted traffic from several airports, without however causing major damage. These attacks arise after Ukraine’s unprecedented Russian bombardments, which left at least 13 dead during the weekend.
The large -scale Russian attack on Ukraine began in February 2022 And has already done dozens, even hundreds of thousands of deaths.
