[RIA Novosti] Assistant to the president and head of the Russian delegation at the talks between Moscow and Kiev, Vladimir Medinsky, on the air of the Belarusian ONT channel , said that freezing the process was an initiative of Ukraine.
He stressed that Russia has never abandoned dialogue at the highest level.
“Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin has repeatedly confirmed this. The only question is that in order for a summit meeting to take place between the presidents, serious preparation is needed. That is, documents of a high degree of readiness are needed,” Medinsky said.
In his opinion, the Russian leader and President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky should meet to reach final agreements and sign specific agreements, "and not to take pictures."
Slutsky allowed the resumption of negotiations with Ukraine
He added that a month ago, the Russian side handed over to Kyiv a draft treaty, in which a number of fundamental positions had already been agreed upon.
"We intended to move on. However, since then there has been no desire to continue the dialogue on the part of Ukraine. They have not even officially confirmed the draft agreement agreed upon by them. They disagreed that our counterparts took a break. They are in no hurry, apparently. The ball is completely on their side," the presidential aide stated.
Russian-Ukrainian consultations began at the end of February: the delegations held two face-to-face meetings in Belarus , after which it was decided to continue them on a daily basis via videoconferencing. At the end of March, another round of talks took place in Istanbul . As a result, Medinsky said that Ukraine had submitted its written proposals for a future treaty, Moscow considers this a step forward, and in general, Kiev, for the first time in many years, has shown a desire to negotiate.
The Russian side, in response, took two steps towards Ukraine. First, it was decided to significantly reduce hostilities in the Kiev and Chernigov directions. Secondly, Moscow suggested that the meeting between Putin and Zelensky be held simultaneously with the initialing of the treaty by the foreign ministers.
However, later Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Ukraine was refusing its own proposals and creating numerous provocations in order to slow down the negotiation process. In particular, according to the minister, Kyiv presented its draft agreement with Moscow, in which there is a departure from the provisions fixed at the meeting in Istanbul regarding Crimea, and also changed the provision on military exercises without mentioning the need to obtain Russia's consent.
Medinsky announced the readiness of Russia for negotiations with Ukraine
[REGNUM] Kyiv's initiative is to freeze Russian-Ukrainian negotiations. This was stated on May 22 by Assistant to the President of Russia Vladimir Medinsky in an interview with the Belarusian TV channel ONT.
“We (the Russian authorities) ... are ready to continue the dialogue,” Medinsky said. “But I will emphasize once again: the ball for the continuation of peace negotiations is on the Ukrainian side.”
According to Medinsky, the freezing of negotiations with Russia is completely the initiative of Ukraine.
As REGNUM reported, on May 9, Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky said that the negotiations between the Russian Federation and Kiev had not yet been terminated and were being held remotely.