Russia says Zelensky’s conditions for resuming peace talks “are not constructive”

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MADRID, May 25. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The Russian government has affirmed this Wednesday that the recent declarations of the president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, on the conditions to resume the negotiation process “are not constructive” and has questioned his will to reach a peace agreement.

Zelenski indicated during the day on Tuesday that he rejects the possibility of resuming negotiations with Russia unless Moscow accepts that its troops withdraw to the positions they occupied before February 24, when the invasion began.

“It is hardly possible to evaluate these words as constructive. I would like to remind that Ukraine has actively participated in the negotiations from the first day of the special military operation and has not set any conditions,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said.

“If you are now setting conditions, it makes us doubt the sincerity of your desire to find a peaceful solution (to the conflict),” Rudenko added, as reported by the Russian news agency Interfax.

Zelenski emphasized Tuesday in an interview for the Japanese radio television NHK that “for all Ukrainians, the victory is to recover all the territories”. “It is true that we must also recover the Donbas region and the Crimean peninsula, but at the expense of this, I want to recover the pre-February 24 state first, and then I will sit at the negotiating table,” he said.

Zelensky himself already announced on Monday that, due to the dominant role of his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow’s decisions, he would only meet him at a possible future negotiating table, something that Moscow described as “an effort of public relations”.