The Kremlin on Wednesday proposed a second Russia-Ukraine meeting in Istanbul on June 2. Moscow will deliver its memo on overcoming the “root causes” of the conflict at Monday’s meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday said Russian President Vladimir Putin was using delaying tactics.
“Russia is prolonging the war and doing everything it can to simply deceive the countries that are still trying to influence Moscow with words rather than pressure,” Zelenskyy said in a video address Thursday. “Words don’t work with Moscow,” he added.
Ukraine has not yet definitively committed to joining the June 2 talks.
Ukrainian officials stressed that seeing Russia’s peace memorandum before the next round of talks is crucial for the meeting to go productively. Russia previously promised to send a list of its negotiating positions but has not done so yet.
Ukrainian officials said they have submitted a memorandum outlining Kyiv’s vision for peace to both the U.S. and Russia. Keith Kellogg, U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, confirmed the receipt of the Ukrainian document, calling it “pretty good” and “reasonable.”