Ukraine’s foreign minister on Friday accused Russia of stalling peace negotiations, saying that Moscow had yet to share a promised memorandum outlining its peace terms. He said Kyiv wanted to see that document before sending a delegation to a new round of talks Moscow has proposed for Monday in Istanbul.
The minister, Andrii Sybiha, said at a news conference in Kyiv that for any meeting to be “substantive and meaningful,” Ukraine needed “to receive a document in advance so that the delegation that will attend has the authority to discuss the relevant positions.”
Mr. Sybiha’s remarks came as both Ukraine and Russia have been maneuvering to set the terms and tempo of peace negotiations, while simultaneously trying to win over the White House, which has threatened to pull out of the talks altogether.
Kyiv’s goal remains to secure a cease-fire first, before moving on to negotiations for a broader peace deal. Russia has shown little interest for a cease-fire. Instead it repeatedly has said that it wants talks to focus on solving the “root causes” of the war — Kremlin parlance for wide-ranging demands like a commitment not to expand NATO eastward, an objective that Kyiv and its allies see as a way to subjugate Ukraine.
Both sides agreed to share their peace terms during a previous round of talks in Istanbul this month that yielded a large prisoner exchange but little else.
Kyiv said it had submitted its own peace terms to both Russia and the United States before next week’s potential talks. But Russia has said it will share its memorandum only during the new round of negotiations, prompting Ukraine to accuse it of slow-walking the peace process.
Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said on Friday that the memorandum could not “be made public” and that the Russian delegation would be ready to meet Monday morning in Turkey.
Ukrainian officials have said Russia might try to ambush their delegation by proposing terms that are nonstarters for Kyiv — such as demanding that it withdraws from territories it still controls — and then blame Ukraine for derailing the talks by refusing to engage.
The current diplomatic dance has deepened doubts over whether new talks will take place, and if they do, whether they can produce any meaningful progress toward peace.
At the news conference, Mr. Sybiha spoke alongside the Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, who said that his country was ready to host a new round of talks, describing them as “possible.” But he offered no date.
Keith Kellogg, President Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, confirmed this week that the United States had received Ukraine’s memorandum but was still waiting on Russia’s. Still, he said that the Ukrainian authorities should not refuse negotiations even if Russia did not submit its memorandum in advance.
“I always caution, don’t say things like that, because if you don’t show up, you know part of life is showing up,” Mr. Kellogg told ABC News on Friday. “You need to show you’re serious.”
Mr. Kellogg said Ukraine’s memorandum included 22 terms that he described as “pretty good” and “reasonable.”
A senior Ukrainian official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations, said the memorandum included provisions for a cease-fire on land, at sea and in the air, with monitoring to be carried out by international partners.
Mr. Kellogg also told ABC News that Russia’s concerns about NATO’s potential eastward expansion were “fair,” adding that “Ukraine coming into NATO is not on the table.”
Ukraine and Georgia were promised eventual membership more than a decade ago, and other countries, such as Moldova, have since voiced interest in joining the Western military alliance.
Mr. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, lauded Mr. Kellogg’s comments, saying they came as a “result of Russia-U.S. talks held behind closed doors.”
Russia is pushing forward again on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine, opening a new front further north and ramping up a campaign of bombardment on Ukrainian cities — developments that Ukraine and some Western officials say shows that Moscow is not interested in a cease-fire.
The authorities in Ukraine said that Russian attacks overnight on Friday involved 90 drones and two ballistic missiles that targeted the country’s north and south. Emergency services said a strike had destroyed a postal facility in the southern Odesa region.
Against that backdrop, Mr. Trump accused President Vladimir V. Putin of “playing with fire” this week and threatened new sanctions against Russia. But after months of alternating praise of the Russian leader with empty threats, it is unclear whether his latest comments will translate into concrete action.
Maria Varenikova and Nataliya Vasilyeva contributed reporting.
Constant Méheut reports on the war in Ukraine, including battlefield developments, attacks on civilian centers and how the war is affecting its people.
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