Kremlin said on Saturday that the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would be possible only after both sides reach an agreement. The recent statement comes a day after both Moscow and Kyiv held their first direct talks in more than three years, which did not result in a truce.
According to the Kyiv Post, quoting local authorities, the morning after the talks, a Russian drone attack on a minibus carrying evacuated civilians in the eastern Sumy region killed nine people and wounded five.
“Yesterday, as on any day of this war, there was an opportunity to cease fire,” Zelensky wrote on social media following the attack, adding that “Russia only retains the opportunity to continue killing”.
He reiterated his call on Ukraine’s allies to step up sanctions on Moscow.
“Without stronger sanctions, without stronger pressure on Russia, there will be no real diplomacy there,” the Ukrainian president said, as quoted by the Kyiv Post.
Since 2022, the first direct talks between Ukraine and Russia resulted in a concrete agreement to exchange 1,000 prisoners each. According to the report, Ukraine’s top negotiator, Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, said the “next step” would be a meeting between Zelensky and Putin. Russia said it took note of the request.
“We consider it possible, but only as a result of the work and upon achieving certain results in the form of an agreement between the two sides,” the Kremlin’s spokesman told journalists during a briefing on Saturday.
Vladimir Medinsky, the top negotiator of Russia, said that Moscow and Kyiv would “present their vision of a possible future ceasefire,” without saying when.
Kremlin said that first the POW swap must be completed and both sides need to present their visions for a ceasefire before fixing the next round of talks.
“For now, we need to do what the delegations agreed on yesterday” in Turkey, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, as quoted by the Kyiv Post.
