Russia says it will respond positively if Ukraine accepts negotiations

“The negotiation process was not interrupted by us. It was stalled by the partners on the Ukrainian side. As soon as they expressed their goodwill to return to the negotiating table, we will respond positively,” the deputy minister said. Rudenko said today (May 19), according to the TASS news agency.

“The main thing is to have something to discuss,” the official stressed.

Earlier, Russian and Ukrainian officials on May 17 both confirmed that the peace negotiation process between the two sides was frozen, and blamed each other.

“Negotiations are not progressing and we see that Ukrainian negotiators are not fully ready to continue this process,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on May 18.

Deputy Minister Rudenko also said a day earlier that the two countries had not held talks “of any kind”, and that Kiev had in fact “withdrawn from the peace process”.

On the Ukrainian side, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a member of the Ukrainian negotiating team, said today that the country can only accept a ceasefire if Russia completely withdraws its troops from Ukraine.

Earlier, Mr. Podolyak said that negotiations with Russia on conflict resolution had been suspended, because Moscow “still has stereotyped thinking”. According to an adviser to President Zelensky, Russia does not realize that the military operation in Ukraine “no longer goes on according to the manner, plan and schedule” that Moscow intended.

“Since the two delegations met in Istanbul (Turkey), there have not been any significant changes, nor progress. Ukraine’s increasingly strong resistance is the reason Russia cannot reach it. achieve his goal,” said Mr. Podolyak.

Ukraine and Russia have not held any face-to-face talks since March 29. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has accused Ukraine of withdrawing from the original agreement, bringing negotiations to a deadlock.

Lavrov also accused the West, especially Britain and the United States, of pulling the strings of Ukraine’s negotiators and trying to prolong the conflict, believing that the longer the conflict lasted, the more Russia would suffer. .

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