Ukrainian service members of the 55th Separate Artillery Brigade fire a Caesar self-propelled howitzer towards Russian troops, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, near the town of Avdiivka in Donetsk region, Ukraine May 31, 2023. — Reuters
MOSCOW: Russia has asked for fresh peace talks with Ukraine to be held in Istanbul next Monday. But Ukraine has said that it wants to see Russia’s peace plan in writing before agreeing to meet.
Kyiv insists that future talks must be serious and lead to real progress, not just more delays.
The call for talks comes as the war enters its third year with no sign of a ceasefire.
Diplomatic efforts to end the three-year conflict have picked up speed in recent months, but Moscow has repeatedly rejected calls for an unconditional ceasefire and has shown no signs of backing down from its maximalist demands.
The two sides last met in Istanbul on May 16 — their first direct talks in over three years — but that meeting failed to bring any breakthrough.
US President Donald Trump, who has been pushing for a peace deal, has become increasingly frustrated with Moscow’s apparent stalling and warned on Wednesday he would decide within “about two weeks” whether Vladimir Putin was serious about ending the fighting.
Ukraine said it had already submitted its peace terms to Russia and insisted that Moscow must do the same.
“We are not opposed to further meetings with the Russians and are awaiting their memorandum,” said Ukrainian defence minister Rustem Umerov, who represented Kyiv at the last talks, in a post on X.
“The Russian side has at least four more days before their departure to provide us with their document for review. Diplomacy must be substantive, and the next meeting must yield results.”
Moscow’s invasion, launched in February 2022, has caused tens of thousands of deaths and destroyed large parts of eastern and southern Ukraine.
The Russian army now controls around a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, including the Crimean peninsula, which it annexed in 2014.
‘Very disappointed’
Russia said it would present a “memorandum” outlining its peace terms at the talks next Monday and that its foreign minister Sergei Lavrov had briefed US counterpart Marco Rubio on the proposal.
“Our delegation, led by Vladimir Medinsky, is ready to present a memorandum to the Ukrainian delegation and provide the necessary explanations during a second round of direct talks in Istanbul on Monday, June 2,” Lavrov said in a video statement.
Medinsky, a Russian political scientist and former culture minister, led Russia’s negotiating team during the earlier talks in Istanbul on May 16.
The two sides have exchanged heavy aerial attacks in recent weeks. Ukraine launched one of its largest-ever drone strikes on Russia overnight, while Moscow pounded Ukrainian cities with deadly missile barrages over the weekend.
Trump told reporters on Wednesday he was “very disappointed” with Russia’s deadly attacks during the peace efforts, but refused to impose further sanctions on Moscow.
“If I think I’m close to getting a deal, I don’t want to screw it up by doing that,” he said.
The Kremlin earlier dismissed a call by Ukrainian President Zelensky for a three-way summit with Trump and Putin.
Moscow said any meeting involving Russian President Putin and Zelensky would only happen after “concrete agreements” had been made between negotiators from both sides.
In exchange for peace, the Kremlin has demanded that Ukraine abandon its aim of joining NATO and give up territory already under Russian control — a demand Kyiv has rejected as unacceptable.
Russia looking for ‘reasons’
Talks in Istanbul earlier this month led to a 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner exchange, and both sides agreed to work on peace proposals.
But Russia has continued its deadly strikes on Ukraine and refused to consider a ceasefire.
Zelensky on Wednesday accused Russia of deliberately delaying the peace process and having no real desire to stop the war.
“They will constantly look for reasons not to end the war,” he said at a press conference in Berlin alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
On the battlefield, Zelensky said Russia was massing over 50,000 troops near the front line in the northeastern Sumy border region, where Moscow’s forces have captured several settlements in what Putin has described as a “buffer zone” inside Ukrainian territory.
