Russia says it has given Ukraine ‘documents’ on peace talks, Ukraine denies

Russia says it gave Ukraine ‘text’ on peace talks, Ukraine denies – FOREIGNBRIEF.COM

According to Reuters news agency, the Kremlin accused Ukraine of backing away from the commitments made in the peace talks between the two sides and this is having bad consequences for the negotiations.

Russian television station RT quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying the pace of the talks was not satisfactory. The ball is on the field of Kiev (meaning the decision is Ukraine’s) because Russia has given a document to the Ukrainian side. He confirmed that Russia is waiting for Ukraine’s response to this document.

Peskov’s statement echoed comments and information made by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova earlier on the same day.

She said that Russia had lost confidence in Ukrainian negotiators.

Speaking to Russia’s Rossiya 24 news channel, Ms. Zakharova used a Russian adage “trust, but verify”, “because we don’t have any trust with people”. this for a long time”.

Zakharova believes that the Ukrainian government does not act independently but is controlled from the outside. She described “Kiev’s” handling of the negotiations as a “circus”, saying that the Ukrainian authorities were constantly changing their position.

The representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Kiev’s participation in the negotiations may be just a diversion, but the Russian side is “ready for it”.

In addition, Tass news agency also quoted her verbatim criticism of Ukraine: “There is no trust in their words. Many things, stated in public space and on the negotiating table, have been reversed by Kiev. immediately, sometimes within an hour or even 15 minutes. Kiev simply crosses out the work that has been done. Again – everything has to be in writing and on paper,” Zakharova stressed. .

Since Russia launched a special military operation against Ukraine on February 24, the two sides have held many rounds of face-to-face and online negotiations. March 29 was the last time the two negotiating teams met face-to-face.

Since then, negotiations have been deadlocked again. On March 19, Ukraine’s chief negotiator said it was difficult to predict when peace talks could resume.