Russia expresses the readiness for negotiations, but makes it conditional on the recognition of the annexation of the Ukrainian regions, which Kiev considers unacceptable.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday, following the call of US President Donald Trump, said that Russia is ready to start peace negotiations with Ukraine without any preliminary conditions. However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claims that the “necessary” recognition of the annexation of five Ukrainian regions, including Crimea, is “necessary” for interviews. TASR reports this based on AFP and TASS reports.
“The Russian side has repeatedly confirmed its readiness, confirmed by the President, to start negotiating with Ukraine without any preliminary requirements. According to him, however, negotiations must initiate Ukraine and Moscow “has not yet registered any such steps”.
However, during an interview for Brazilian newspaper on Globo, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the international recognition of Russian ownership of Crimea, Sevastopol, the Donetsk People’s Republic, the People’s Republic of Luhansk, the CHERSON and the Zaporoza region “.
Trump said on Sunday that, according to him, the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyj is ready to resign Crimea as part of the ceasefire agreement and called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to “stop shooting”. “Moscow and Washington maintain dialogue to find the way to the agreement. We hope that this will create space for an acceptable result,” Lavrov said during an interview for Globo.
Since the beginning of the offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has seized large parts of four Ukrainian regions and declared them for its own, and the Crimea Peninsula annexed them in 2014.
