Conflicts & War

No Putin-Zelenskyy meeting until negotiation progress made: Kremlin

Moscow, Mar 21 (EFE).- Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine have not delivered sufficient progress to set up a face-to-face meeting between the leaders of the two nations, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Kremlin said Monday.

“The level of progress in the negotiations is not as advanced as we would like, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in his daily press conference.

He declined to provide further details on the topics being discussed by the negotiating teams, which are due to meet via video conference later Monday.

Peskov added that direct talks between Putin and Zelenskyy, which the Ukrainian president has called for, would only happen if Kyiv “did its homework” and made agreements.

“For now, there is no substantial movement,” he said.

The Kremlin spokesman said Russia was not considering a ceasefire during the negotiations, claiming it would allow Ukraine’s “nationalist formations” to regroup and continue to attack Russian forces.

Zelenskyy on Sunday said he was prepared to meet with Putin although added he had no intention of recognizing the independence of the Russian-backed breakaway territories in Donetsk and Luhansk, nor Moscow’s claimed sovereignty over Crimea, a territory it annexed in 2014 in breach of international law.

The Kremlin has also demanded that Kyiv scrap any intentions of joining Nato. EFE

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