Kremlin: Ukraine has not yet asked for talks with Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman revealed on Monday that the Kremlin had not received any requests last week from the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to arrange a phone conversation with the Russian leader.
The Kremlin had previously said that Putin would not refuse to hold a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart to discuss how to end hostilities in Ukraine.
He also clarified that there are no discussions about a meeting between Putin and US President Joe Biden.
Ukraine has repeatedly called for direct talks between the two leaders, and Zelensky said on Sunday that Ukrainian negotiators were trying to arrange such a meeting.
Zelensky stressed that Ukrainian officials who are negotiating with their Russian counterparts will insist on direct talks between the two countries’ leaders to establish peace.
Meanwhile, the head of the Russian negotiating delegation with Ukraine, Vladimir Medinsky, announced, Monday, that negotiations between the two sides will continue daily via videoconference, without any holidays.
“This form (of negotiations) saves a lot of effort, we are doing everything to ensure the implementation of the tasks set by Russian President Vladimir Putin and for the sake of a peaceful future for Russia,” he said, according to the Interfax news agency.
This came after the head of the negotiating delegation for Kyiv and aide to the Ukrainian President, Mikhailo Podolyak, announced the postponement of today’s session until tomorrow.
He added, in tweets via Twitter, that a technical deadline was given to the delegations until tomorrow to hold more individual discussions.
It is noteworthy that three sessions of the talks were held previously at the delegation-level, the first on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, and the following two sessions on the Polish-Belarusian border.
These rounds have so far led to a temporary ceasefire in several major cities, including Kyiv, intending to evacuate stranded civilians, but that intermittent truce witnessed several violations, while the two sides blamed each other.