The Kremlin on Tuesday continued to downplay expectations for an upcoming round of peace negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian delegates, saying it does not believe any breakthrough is likely in the near future.
“There’s no reason to expect any kind of miraculous breakthrough,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “That’s unlikely under the current circumstances.”
“We intend to pursue and secure our interests and to achieve the objectives we set from the very beginning,” saying that it would be “misguided” to set a timeline for a potential peace settlement due to “many factors” at play in the negotiations.
Peskov also declined to say when the next round of talks will take place, saying only that the Kremlin was “hopeful” they will happen this week.
“Once we’re ready, we’ll announce the timeline,” he told reporters. “The issue of negotiations is quite complex. Among other things, we’ll need to discuss the draft memorandums that were exchanged during the second round of talks.”
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the third round of discussions would take place on Wednesday. However, an anonymous source told Russia’s state news agency TASS that the talks would take place Thursday.
Russia and Ukraine have held two rounds of direct peace talks this year, the first on May 16 and the second on June 2. Both rounds took place in Istanbul.
While the two warring sides agreed to major prisoner exchanges during the talks, there has so far been no breakthrough in reaching a broad ceasefire agreement, let alone an end to the full-scale invasion, which Russian President Vladimir Putin launched in February 2022.
AFP contributed reporting.
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