‘Changes on the Ground’ – Russian Foreign Ministry Explains Evolving Negotiations Strategy
Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday told Reuters that its appetite for peace talks diminishes as it makes more gains on the frontlines in Ukraine, explaining why Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin skipped out on direct talks in Turkey this week between Moscow and Kyiv.
When asked if Russia’s position had changed since June 2024 when Putin entertained peace talks with the understanding that Ukraine would officially drop its NATO ambitions and withdraw its troops from the entirety of the territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed by Russia, Zakharova said, “Yes, there are these changes in the Russian position.”
“These changes are reflected by changes on the ground,” she said.
Ukrainian forces mounted a counteroffensive starting in the summer of 2023, regaining much of the eastern occupied territories and later making some headway into Russia itself, in the Kursk region. More recently, however, Russian forces have managed to take back much of that land.
Zakharova quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who in 2024 said that “Ukraine shrank in territory every time it walked away from talks with Russia,” Reuters reported.
In the first week of March 2022, about 10 days after its full-scale invasion began, the Kremlin’s demands were for Ukraine’s recognition of Russian-occupied Crimea, independence for separatist-controlled Luhansk and Donetsk, and the “de-militarization” of Ukraine.
In talks of February of this year in Saudi Arabia between US and Russian officials, Lavrov rejected the idea of NATO peacekeeping forces, saying “the expansion of NATO, the absorption of Ukraine by the North Atlantic Alliance, is a direct threat to the interests” of Russia.
Russia currently occupies just less than 20 percent of Ukraine’s area: the great majority of the Luhansk region, and claims that it controls some 70 percent of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
On possible talks in Istanbul, Zakharova said: “As for the Ukrainian side, how ready is it? What is it ready for? I think, this will be shown, including today in Istanbul.”
Earlier in the day, she had called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “clown” and a “failure” after he criticized Putin for not showing up, and complained about “running around the world looking for Putin.”
Talks in Turkey on Friday will involve a lower-level Russian delegation instead, as Ukraine has sent its Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and several deputy ministers.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that he didn’t think “anything productive is actually going to happen from this point forward” until the US President Donald Trump and the Russian leader engage in a “very frank and direct conversation.”
“I think it’s abundantly clear that the only way we’re going to have a breakthrough here is between President Trump and President Putin,” Rubio said.
Source: Kyiv Post