Russia says signal for start of direct peace talks should come from Ukraine

Russia said on Monday it was waiting for a signal from Ukraine to say it was willing to hold direct negotiations to end their war, but had not seen any signs of movement.

The Kremlin said last Friday that the possibility of direct talks had been raised during a three-hour meeting between President Vladimir Putin and US envoy Steve Witkoff.

Moscow and Kyiv have not held direct negotiations since March 2022, soon after the start of Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine. Later that year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy adopted a decree that ruled out negotiations with Putin, after Russia claimed four regions of Ukraine as its own.

Zelenskyy, who met US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of Pope Francis' funeral, has said Kyiv would be ready to hold talks with Moscow once a ceasefire deal has stopped the fighting.

Zelenskyy's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said on Monday that continuing Russian attacks contradicted the Kremlin's statements about wanting peace. "Russia is not ceasing fire at the front and is attacking Ukraine with Shaheds right now," Yermak wrote on Telegram, referring to drones widely used by Russian forces. "All the Russians' statements about peace without ceasing fire are just plain lies."

Asked by a reporter if the signal for direct talks should come from Ukraine or the US, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "Well, from Kyiv, at least Kyiv should take some actions in this regard. They have a legal ban on this. But so far we don't see any action."

Meanwhile, Moscow would continue its "special military operation", he said. Moscow and Kyiv are under pressure from the US to find a settlement to end the war, the deadliest in Europe since World War II.

Ukraine accuses Russia of playing for time in order to try to seize more of its territory, and has urged greater international pressure to get Moscow to stop fighting. Russia accuses Ukraine of being unwilling to make any concessions and of seeking a ceasefire only on its own terms.

Putin told Witkoff on Friday that Russia was ready for talks with Kyiv without preconditions, according to a Kremlin aide.

Trump said on Friday that the two sides were "very close to a deal". In recent days he has been more critical than usual of Moscow, saying there was no reason for it to fire missiles into civilian areas and voicing concern that Putin was "just tapping me along".