By ILLIA NOVIKOV, Associated Press
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine is ready to resume direct peace talks with Russia in Istanbul on Monday, a top adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, following days of uncertainty over whether Kyiv would attend a further meeting proposed by Moscow.
But Ukrainian officials have insisted that the Kremlin provide a promised memorandum setting out its position on ending the more than three-year war, before the two delegations sit down to negotiate.
“Ukraine is ready to attend the next meeting, but we want to engage in a constructive discussion,” Andrii Yermak said in a statement on the website of Ukraine’s Presidential Office late Thursday.
“This means it is important to receive Russia’s draft. There is enough time – four days are sufficient for preparing and sending the documents,” Yermak said.
Ukraine and its European allies have repeatedly accused the Kremlin of dragging its feet in peace efforts, while it tries to press its bigger army’s battlefield initiative and capture more Ukrainian land.
Kyiv’s Western partners, including the U.S., are urging Moscow to agree to an unconditional ceasefire, something Kyiv has embraced while the Kremlin has held out for terms more to its liking.
Ukraine’s top diplomat, Andrii Sybiha, also told reporters on Friday that Kyiv is waiting for Russia to clarify its proposals ahead of a next round of talks.
“We want to end this war this year. We are interested in establishing a ceasefire, whether it is for 30 days, 50 days, or 100 days. Ukraine is open to discussing this directly with Russia,” Sybiha said at a joint news conference in Kyiv with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan.
Sybiha and Fidan also held the door open to a future meeting between Presidents Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin of Russia, possibly also including U.S. President Donald Trump. Fidan said the ongoing peace push in Istanbul could be “crowned with” such a meeting.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday told reporters that a Russian delegation will head to Istanbul and stand ready to take part in the second round of talks on June 2.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday publicly invited Ukraine to hold direct negotiations with Moscow on that date. In a video statement, Lavrov said Russia would use Monday’s meeting to deliver an outline of Moscow’s position on “reliably overcoming” what it calls the root causes of the war. Russian officials have said for weeks that such a document is forthcoming.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov on Wednesday said that Ukraine isn’t opposed to further direct talks with Russia, but that they would be “empty” if Moscow were to fail to clarify its terms. Umerov said he had personally handed a document setting out Ukraine’s position to the Russian side.
Low-level delegations from Russia and Ukraine held their first direct peace talks in three years in Istanbul on May 16. The talks, which lasted two hours, brought no significant breakthrough, although both sides agreed to the largest prisoner exchange of the war. It was carried out last weekend and freed 1,000 captives on each side.
Fidan on Friday voiced a belief that the successful swap has “proved that negotiations can yield concrete results.”
“There are two paths in front of us. Either we will turn a blind eye to the continuation of the war, or we will reach a lasting peace within the end of the year,” he told reporters in Kyiv.
Associated Press writers Hanna Arhirova and Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.
