Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the international community to “force Russia into real peace talks” — a change in tone since September when Kyiv seemed to close the door on negotiations following Russia’s claim to annex a fifth of Ukraine.
Speaking Monday, Zelensky said his nation’s required certain assurances from Russia, including “restoration of [Ukraine’s] territorial integrity … compensation for all war damage, punishment for every war criminal and guarantees that it will not happen again.”
“These are completely understandable conditions,” he said.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said Tuesday that Zelensky lacked “good will” toward negotiations, and emphasized that Moscow has no preconditions on peace talks to end the war sparked by its unprovoked invasion.
“We have always declared our readiness for such negotiations,” he said.
Moscow has said it will not negotiate over the four Ukrainian provinces it claimed to annex in September — despite the fact that Ukrainian forces are continuing to liberate villages in the occupied areas.
Russia and Ukraine engaged in peace talks in the early weeks of the war, with delegations meeting in Belarus and Turkey. Zelensky asked to meet personally with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the time, but was rebuffed.
The talks stalled in March, and have not been resumed.
Zelensky claimed Monday that Kyiv had made multiple peace overtures toward Moscow, but had “always received crazy Russian responses with new terrorist attacks, shelling or blackmail.”
With Post wires
