No agreement has been reached so far at the Russian-Ukrainian peace talks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.
Calling on the countries to exert influence over Ukraine to make Kyiv more constructive at the negotiations, Peskov said significant progress in the talks is yet to be achieved to enable a possible meeting between President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
“So far, no significant progress has been made. So far, [it is early] to talk about the meeting of the two presidents, they will simply have nothing to fix. There are no agreements that they can fix,” Peskov told reporters, according to Sputnik news agency.
Every actor in the world should now use their influence on Kyiv to make it more willing to reach agreements, the spokesman added.
“Actually, the choice of a place for some such hypothetical meeting is a secondary issue, although we are certainly grateful to all those countries that declare their desire to help such a negotiation process,” he added.
The Kremlin’s reaction came a day after Zelensky expressed willingness to negotiate with Putin.
He, however, added that the negotiations could lead to a much bigger global conflict if the talks break down.
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“I’m ready for negotiations with him. I was ready for the last two years. And I think that without negotiations we cannot end this war,” Zelensky told CNN in an interview.
“I think that we have to use any format, any chance in order to have a possibility of negotiating, the possibility of talking to Putin. But if these attempts fail, that would mean that this is a third World War.”
Meanwhile, Russian bombings continue to pummel Ukraine as the war entered 26th day on Monday.
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More Russian troops are heading towards Kyiv, as per reports, as renewed overnight shelling killed at least eight people at a shopping mall in the capital.
Almost 350,000 people are trapped without water and electricity in the port city of Mariupol, which has been bombarded by Russian troops for almost a month in what has been described as a “massive war crime” by EU policy chief Josep Borrell.
Ukrainian leaders also stressed they were standing firm against invaders in Mariupol, which is suffering a critical humanitarian crisis.
(With inputs from agencies)
