President Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly expressed his desire to negotiate directly with Russian President Putin both before and after Russia started its military operation in Ukraine. Most recently, he made a similar call in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland).
President Zelensky said Putin was the only Russian official he wanted to talk to. Zelensky stated that if President Putin “can see reality”, then “perhaps we can try to go the diplomatic route before it is too late”.
Asked to comment on Mr. Zelensky’s comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on May 27 that Moscow did not believe that Kiev was ready to negotiate peace. Mr. Peskov said “negotiations have been frozen” due to the stance from Ukraine.
“Ukrainian leadership constantly makes contradictory statements to each other, making it impossible for us to understand their intentions and it is unclear whether they are ready to approach the issue soberly, acknowledging the reality of the situation. or not,” Peskov said.
Last week, Mykhaylo Podolyak, Ukraine’s top negotiator, said that talks with Moscow were halting after the two countries’ delegations met several times without results.
Shortly after, Dmitry Peskov accused the Ukrainian authorities of not wanting to continue negotiations to end hostilities. “Negotiations really did not progress and we note the lack of will of the Ukrainian negotiators,” Peskov said. The last talks between the two countries took place on April 22, according to Russian news agencies.
In the midst of “frozen” negotiations, President Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials repeatedly stated that their forces were gaining the upper hand over Russia on the battlefield. Zelensky also asserted that negotiations with Russia will only be able to resume after Ukraine regains all the territories it lost control of during Russia’s three-month campaign.
Meanwhile, the Russian press reports that Ukraine has suffered some heavy military defeats this month. The surrender of many Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol was described by Kiev as an “evacuation” with the support of Ukrainian intelligence.
This week, the Russian army took control of Liman, a strategically important town in the Donbass. At present, even Zelensky’s advisers admit that the situation on the battlefield is moving in a direction that is not in Ukraine’s favour.
at Blogtuan.info – Source: Soha.vn – Read the original article here
