Kremlin: Kiev Stalling Peace Talks

By Staff, Agencies

The Kremlin has accused Ukraine of stalling peace efforts, saying Kiev has shown no desire to continue dialogue despite prior agreements to establish working groups on key issues.

“During the last meeting in Istanbul, the delegations put forward proposals to create working groups to discuss all modalities on key issues.

Now, a pause has occurred. The pause is due to the Kiev regime’s unwillingness to continue the dialogue,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

His comments came in response to questions about Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who last week said he was prepared to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“Vladimir Alexandrovich [Zelensky] needs to calm down — there is a good proposal on the table,” Lukashenko remarked on Friday, noting that the initiative had earlier been discussed with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Direct negotiations between Moscow and Kiev resumed in Türkiye earlier this year.

While three rounds of talks — the last held in July — have yet to produce a breakthrough, they did lead to limited progress on humanitarian issues, including several prisoner exchanges and the return of bodies of fallen soldiers.