Ukraine has proposed a new round of peace talks with Russia next week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Saturday. He reiterated the need to increase the momentum of the talks, which were last held in early June. He also called for a personal meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, TASR reports, citing an AFP report.
Two rounds of Russian-Ukrainian peace talks have taken place in Istanbul so far this year. The talks have not led to any progress towards ending the war. However, the parties have agreed to a large-scale exchange of prisoners of war and fallen soldiers. These exchanges took place in stages in June.
Zelenskyy said on Friday that negotiations with Russia needed more momentum. In this regard, he asked the new Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Rustem Umerov, to intensify the talks.
"Umerov also informed (me) that he proposed another meeting with the Russian side next week," Zelensky said in his regular evening address posted on Telegram."It is necessary to intensify the negotiations," he added, adding that a meeting at the leadership level was necessary to ensure"real - lasting - peace."
Moscow did not immediately respond to the proposal for a new round of talks, but on Friday it welcomed Zelensky's statements about the need to increase the momentum of the peace talks as a positive signal."We completely agree with that. We also advocate for the negotiation process to be accelerated," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at the time.
Meanwhile, an unnamed source for the Russian TASS news agency said on Saturday that the warring parties had not yet agreed on a date for the third meeting of delegations."No date has been set yet, but there will be one," he said.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed his dissatisfaction with Moscow's approach in recent weeks, threatening to impose secondary sanctions in the form of 100% tariffs on its trading partners if it does not end the war against Ukraine within 50 days.
Russia responded by rejecting Trump's"ultimatums" as "unacceptable" and calling for continued negotiations to resolve the conflict it sparked by invading Ukraine in February 2022. Moscow says it prefers a diplomatic way to end the war, insisting that the invasion will continue until it achieves its goals.
"If we fail to achieve our goals through diplomacy, the special military operation will continue... This is an unwavering position. We would like Washington and all of NATO to take it with the utmost seriousness," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Tuesday.
