LONDON (Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Thursday that Moscow was still awaiting Ukraine’s response to Russia’s latest written proposal in peace talks between the two countries, and questioned why Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky was unfamiliar with the document.
Zelensky said on Wednesday that he had not seen or heard of the text the Kremlin said it had sent.
“I repeat once again, as I said yesterday, our wording, in fact the latest version, was passed on to our opponents, to the Ukrainian negotiating delegation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Peskov said the Kremlin was aware of Zelensky’s comment, “which also raises certain questions about why no one reports to President Zelensky about our versions of the text.”
Comments from both sides seem to highlight both the gap in their positions and the poor state of communication between them, eight weeks after Russia sent troops and tanks to Ukraine and more than three weeks after their last face-to-face talks on March 29.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on April 12 that the talks had reached a dead end. Ukraine’s chief negotiator said on Tuesday that it was difficult to predict when they could resume due to the Russian siege of Mariupol, and what he said was Moscow’s desire to strengthen its position through a new military offensive.
Russia says it has been forced to launch its “special military operation” to demilitarize and “denationalize” Ukraine and protect Russian-speakers there from “genocide” – arguments condemned by Kyiv and the West as baseless pretexts for war.
Moscow wants Kyiv to accept the loss of Crimea, which it recaptured from Ukraine in 2014, and the eastern region of Donbass, which is now the focus of Russia’s offensive. Ukraine says it will not compromise on its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
(This story corrects a typo in Zelensky’s name in the first paragraph)
(Written by Mark Trevelyan; Edited by Angus McSwon)
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