Ukraine: Selenskyj proposes Moscow new peace negotiations

The Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Selenskyj wants to get the last stopping negotiations with Russia through a ceasefire again. The secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Rustem Umjerow, had proposed a meeting next week, Selenskyj said in a video message. Ukraine is ready for a meeting at the management level. Selenskyj did not call an exact date.

The Russian news agency TASS reported that a source from the vicinity of the Russian negotiation team had confirmed that he had received Kiev’s proposal for a meeting. Russia had recently repeatedly declared the willingness to continue the talks started in the spring in Istanbul. The last round ended quickly at the beginning of June after the Russian and Ukrainian delegates had broken their meeting after almost an hour. Moscow had originally expected a new round of negotiations in the second half of the Juni.

Selenskyj said that a new exchange of prisoners was also planned. The warring parties had agreed on this in their first rounds of negotiations. The Ukrainian President had asked Umjerow, who recently had the talks as Defense Minister, to increase the dynamics of negotiation. Everything had to be done to achieve a ceasefire, he said. “Ukraine is ready for such a meeting.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskow welcomes that Selenskyj wants to give the negotiating process more dynamics. “This is a positive signal. And here we are absolutely in agreement: we are also in favor of accelerating the negotiating process,” said Peskow.

In spring, Ukraine and Russia resumed their direct negotiations in Istanbul for a possible termination of the Moscow War of Agency – for the first time in 2022. However, a full and unconditional ceasefire required by Ukraine is not in sight.

Russia has been a destructive war against Ukraine for more than three years. Moscow makes maximum demands for the termination of the invasion, which Kyiv categorically rejects. The Russian conditions include Kiev’s waiver of NATO accession and the recognition of the areas annexed by Moscow.

At the beginning of the week, US President Donald Trump also increased the pressure of Russia and demanded an ceasefire within 50 days. He threatened Moscow with sanctions and punitive tariffs, including punitive fees for Russia’s trading partners.

Meanwhile, Russia reported other Ukrainian drone attacks on the capital Moscow and other regions. A total of 93 drones were shot down, including 19 above the Moscow region, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced. According to this, around ten regions, especially the areas bordering Ukraine, were affected. At first there were no reports of serious damage or injuries.

Ukraine wants to hit the opponent’s military supplies with the attacks on targets in the Russian hinterland. The damage and victims as a result of the Ukrainian attacks are of no relation to the many dead and injured as well as severe destruction by the Russian attacks.

According to Ukrainian information, eleven deprived children and adolescents who were deprived of Russia returned to their homeland. The youngest of the children backed is ten years old, the oldest 17, as the Ukrainian human rights officer Dmytro Lubinez announced on Telegram. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, 1453 children have been brought back from the occupied areas and Russia. The information could not be checked independently.

Russia is accused of deliberately destroying the identity of Ukrainian children and causing deep emotional and psychological trauma. The International Criminal Court in Den Haag issued arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his child representative Maria Lwowa-Belowa due to the deletion. Russia rejects the allegations.