Ukraine has proposed to hold a new round of peace talks with Russia next week, following negotiations that stalled last month, according to Al Jazeera. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed on Saturday that Defence Council Secretary Rustem Umerov had made an offer for a meeting with Russian negotiators for next week. “Everything should be done to achieve a ceasefire,” Zelenskyy said in his evening address to the nation, Al Jazeera reported.
“The Russian side should stop hiding from decisions.” Ukraine’s leader also reiterated his readiness to have a face-to-face sit-down with Putin. “A meeting at the leadership level is needed to truly ensure peace-lasting peace,” he said. There was no immediate response from Russia, as per Al Jazeera. Umerov, a former defence minister, was appointed last week as the head of the National Security and Defence Council and tasked with adding more momentum to the negotiations.
He headed his country’s delegation in two previous rounds of talks in Turkiye earlier this year, which yielded little more than an agreement to exchange prisoners and soldiers’ remains. In previous rounds, Russia outlined a list of hardline demands that were not acceptable to Ukraine, calling on it to cede four Ukrainian regions it claims as its own and reject Western military support, as per Al Jazeera.
However, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Friday indicated that Moscow agreed with a statement by Zelenskyy that peace efforts needed “more momentum”. The shift came after United States President Donald Trump, who initially appeared to adopt a conciliatory approach towards Russia after entering office, upped the pressure on Moscow.
This week, Trump set a 50-day deadline for Moscow to reach a ceasefire in Ukraine or face “100 per cent tariffs” and the prospect of secondary sanctions being imposed on countries that buy Russian oil. He also promised to ramp up arms shipments to the war-battered country.
Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the ministry, said on Thursday that Russia would not accept the “blackmail” of Washington’s sanctions ultimatum, and the decision to resume weapons deliveries was a signal to Ukraine to “abandon the peace process”.
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