Russia on Wednesday claimed that Ukraine had declined its proposal for a temporary partial cease-fire aimed at allowing both sides to retrieve their dead from the battlefield, while the Ukrainian president dismissed the proposal as "an ultimatum."
"I believe this is simply a gross mistake on the part of the regime in Kyiv," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told President Vladimir Putin during a televised briefing on the results of Monday's peace talks in Istanbul.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday dismissed Russia's cease-fire proposal as "an ultimatum" and renewed his call for direct talks with Russian President Putin to break the deadlock over the war, which has dragged on for nearly 3½ years.
Both sides exchanged memoranda setting out their conditions for a cease-fire for discussion at Monday's direct peace talks between delegations in Istanbul, their second meeting in just over two weeks. Both sides have established red lines that make any quick deal unlikely.
Zelenskyy said that the second round of talks in Istanbul was no different from the first meeting on May 16. Zelenskyy described the latest negotiations in Istanbul as "a political performance" and "artificial diplomacy" designed to stall for time, delay sanctions and convince the United States that Russia is engaged in dialogue.
"The same ultimatums they voiced back then - now they just put them on paper... Honestly, this document looks like spam. It's spam meant to flood us and create the impression that they're doing something," Zelenskyy said in his first reaction to the Russian document.
He added that the 2025 talks in Istanbul carry "the same content and spirit" as the fruitless negotiations held in the Turkish city in the early days of the war.
