Russia offered a place and date for a new number of negotiations with Ukraine

Russia has proposed the next round of direct negotiations with Ukraine in order to achieve a sustainable peace agreement, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.

There was no immediate reaction from Kyiv.

Lavrov’s proposal is for another meeting on June 2, Monday. « We hope that everyone who honestly, not just words, is interested in the success of the peace process will support a new circle of direct Russian-Ukrainian negotiations in Istanbul, » Lavrov said in a statement.

Earlier on Wednesday, Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian negotiations for Ukraine, said in the announcement app, that he had called the Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Musrov (Head of the Ukrainian Delegation) with proposals for the date and place of the next meeting. « Let me emphasize: Immediately on the spot, we are ready to start a significant discussion of each of the points of the package agreement for the eventual termination of fire, » he said.

Separately, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Russia and Ukraine were agreed to prepare their vision for « models of settling and termination of fire » and to discuss and exchange the documents of the next round of negotiations.

Under pressure from US President Donald Trump to put an end to the bloodiest conflict in Europe after World War II, delegates from warring countries met earlier this month in the city for the first time since March 2022. But the Russian side announced that this was nothing more than the interrupted negotiations more than three years ago. Ukrainian participants confirmed that there were numerous threats in the Russian delegation, including that Moscow was ready to fight endlessly.

After talking to Trump on May 19, Vladimir Putin said Moscow was ready to work with Ukraine on a memorandum on a future peace agreement.

Reuters

Tonight, President Donald Trump said in the White House that Putin may deliberately slow down negotiations to end the fire in the war in Ukraine and that he was disappointed with Russian bombing. « We will find out if it is playing us or not, and if so, we will react a little differently, » Trump told reporters in the oval office.

«  » I will sit with Zelenski and Putin, if necessary, « he replied as a question about the proposal of Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski for a tripartite meeting of the leaders. » I work on the issue with Putin. But I don’t like to see how to shoot rockets in the cities, « he added.

Asked why he did not impose sanctions on Russia, Trump said, « I don’t want to fuck the deal. »

According to him, it takes two weeks to find out if Russia really wants to resolve the conflict. « I’ll let you know in about two weeks, up to two weeks. We’ll find out very soon, » he said. Trump estimated that his special envoy Steve Whitkof « does a phenomenal job ».