Diplomatic efforts to end the three-year conflict have accelerated in recent months, but Moscow has repeatedly rejected calls for an unconditional ceasefire and shown no signs of scaling back its maximalist demands.
US President Donald Trump, who has been pushing for a peace deal, has become increasingly frustrated with Moscow’s apparent stalling and warned Wednesday he would determine within “about two weeks” whether Russian leader Vladimir Putin was serious about ending the fighting.
“We are not opposed to further meetings with the Russians and are awaiting their memorandum,“ Ukrainian defence minister Rustem Umerov, who negotiated for Kyiv at the last talks, said in a post on X.
Moscow’s offensive, launched in February 2022, has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and the destruction of large parts of eastern and southern Ukraine.
‘Very disappointed’
“Our delegation, led by Vladimir Medinsky, is ready to present a memorandum to the Ukrainian delegation and provide the necessary explanations during a second round of direct talks in Istanbul on Monday, June 2,“ Lavrov said in a video statement.
The two sides have traded waves of massive aerial attacks in recent weeks, with Ukraine unleashing one of its largest-ever drone barrages on Russia overnight and Moscow pounding Ukraine with deadly strikes over the weekend.
“If I think I’m close to getting a deal, I don’t want to screw it up by doing that,“ he said.
The Kremlin earlier rejected a call by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for a three-way summit with Trump and Putin.
In exchange for peace, the Kremlin has demanded Ukraine abandon its ambition of joining NATO as well as cede territory it already controls -- a proposition that Ukraine has called unacceptable.
Talks between the two sides in Istanbul earlier this month yielded an exchange of 1,000 prisoners each, and agreeing to work on respective peace proposals.
Zelensky on Wednesday accused Russia of dragging out the peace process and of not wanting to halt its offensive.
On the battlefield, Zelensky said Russia was “amassing” more than 50,000 troops on the front line around the northeastern Sumy border region, where Moscow’s military has captured a number of settlements as it seeks to establish what Putin has called a “buffer zone” inside Ukrainian territory.
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