Ukraine slams Russia for stalling peace talks ahead of planned second meeting

Ukrainian officials charged Russia with stalling peace negotiations ahead of a proposed second set of talks in Istanbul.  

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha‎ on Friday reiterated Ukraine’s commitment to continuing meetings in Turkey, but said Kyiv is still waiting for a promised Russian memorandum on Moscow’s outline of a potential ceasefire framework, which Ukraine is expecting before the talks.

“We are also waiting for a memorandum from the Russian side, as announced. We are waiting for it in advance,” Sybiha‎ told a joint press conference in Kyiv on Friday with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. “This was also promised to the American side,” Sybiha said.

The Kremlin on Wednesday proposed a second Russia-Ukraine meeting in Istanbul on June 2. Moscow will deliver its memo on overcoming the “root causes” of the conflict at Monday’s meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday said Russian President Vladimir Putin was using delaying tactics.

“Russia is prolonging the war and doing everything it can to simply deceive the countries that are still trying to influence Moscow with words rather than pressure,” Zelenskyy said in a video address Thursday. “Words don’t work with Moscow,” he added.

Ukraine has not yet definitively committed to joining the June 2 talks. 

Ukrainian officials stressed that seeing Russia’s peace memorandum before the next round of talks is crucial for the meeting to go productively. Russia previously promised to send a list of its negotiating positions but has not done so yet.

Ukrainian officials said they have submitted a memorandum outlining Kyiv’s vision for peace to both the U.S. and Russia. Keith Kellogg, U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, confirmed the receipt of the Ukrainian document, calling it “pretty good” and “reasonable.”

After the first round of Istanbul talks earlier this month made little progress toward peace, Russia escalated its war efforts, launching multiple massive attacks against Ukraine and pushing ahead with a new offensive in Ukraine’s northeast. 

Following the unsuccessful first-round talks and Russia’s escalation, U.S. President Donald Trump signaled that he is losing patience with Putin and is starting to doubt Moscow’s willingness to make peace.

“I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” Trump wrote on Truth Social earlier this week.

Kellogg said Thursday that the U.S., France, Germany and the U.K. would send their security advisers to Istanbul on Monday for the second round of talks between Ukraine and Russia.