Ukraine and Russia have not held one-on-one peace talks since March 29
Kyiv:
The lifting of sanctions imposed on Russia is part of peace talks between Moscow and Ukraine, which are “difficult” but continue daily, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in remarks published early on Saturday.
Kyiv warned Friday that talks to end Russia’s offensive, now in its third month, are in danger of collapse.
“Currently, the Russian and Ukrainian delegations are actually discussing a draft of a possible treaty via video-conferencing,” Lavrov said in comments to China’s official Xinhua news agency published on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has insisted since the offensive began on February 24 that Western sanctions on Russia needed to be strengthened and could not be part of the talks.
Ukraine and Russia have not held one-on-one peace talks since March 29, and the atmosphere has turned sour over Ukraine’s allegations that Russian troops committed atrocities as they withdrew from areas near Kyiv. Moscow has denied the claims.
Moscow called its actions in Ukraine a “special operation” to civilianize and “deny” its neighboring country. Ukraine and the West maintain that Russia waged an aggressive war without provocation.
Lavrov said, without elaboration, “the agenda of the negotiations includes, among other things, the issues of denuclearization, the recognition of new geopolitical realities, the removal of sanctions, the status of the Russian language.”
“We are in favor of continuing the talks, however difficult they are,” Lavrov said.
Ukraine’s western allies have imposed sweeping sanctions on Moscow. They have frozen nearly half of Russia’s state gold and foreign exchange reserves, crippling Russia’s economy and pushing it to the brink of sovereign default.