Dmitry Peskyov revealed that Ukraine and Russia have proceeded to draft memoranda of understanding with proposals for a “temporary ceasefire” in the Ukrainian territories, Dmitry Peskyov said in remarks to reporters on Wednesday. The Kremlin spokesman stressed that the content of these memoranda would be known soon and then the two sides would enter a new round of negotiations.

“The drafts of the memoranda submitted by the two sides will be known soon and the discussion will turn to the next round of negotiations,” Peskov told Tass news agency, adding that until the terms of each side are known, operations in Ukraine will continue.

In fact, he noted that Russia, unlike Ukraine, does not attack political targets, residential buildings and social facilities. “The Russian armed forces are striking military targets and ammunition depots,” the Russian president’s spokesman said.

The head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, said that after the talks in Constantinople on May 15, Moscow and Kiev agreed to present to each other their vision of a possible future ceasefire.

Later, Russian and US Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump agreed during a telephone conversation that Moscow and Kiev would prepare respective memoranda of understanding. Russia and Ukraine will prepare a document for a future peace treaty, which may also include ceasefire issues and principles for resolving the conflict.

Russia will soon announce a new round of direct negotiations with Ukraine

Russia will soon announce the date for the next round of direct negotiations with Ukraine, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, said, speaking at the 13th International High-Level Meeting on Security Issues.

Moscow will emphasize the abolition of laws against the Russian language, what he called the “cult” of Ukraine’s NATO membership and the neutrality status of Kiev.

According to Lavrov, Ukraine should repeal laws that he argued discriminate against the Russian language. “In the May 16 negotiations in Istanbul, we insisted on the abolition of these discriminatory laws (on restricting the Russian language), and we will continue to do so in the next round of direct negotiations, which will be announced in the near future,”
he said.

He also argued that the ignition of the war was due to the desire for Ukraine’s membership in NATO. “There is another no less important basic reason, which concerns the ‘cult’ for Ukraine’s NATO membership. I have repeatedly said that the cause of the conflict in Ukraine and, on a larger scale, the deep security crisis in Europe was precisely NATO’s aggressive, multi-year eastward expansion of NATO,”
he noted.

Breach of neutrality

Also, he argued that although Ukraine had declared a neutral, non-nuclear status in 1991, it was violating that commitment. “Ukraine’s neutral, non-bloc and non-nuclear weapons-free character was solemnly proclaimed in the declaration of independence in 1991. It was precisely this commitment that made it possible for it to be recognized as an independent state by both Russia and the international community,”
he said.

According to Lavrov, the return to the pledge is one of Russia’s key demands “that must be met in the framework of any settlement, as was envisaged in the April 2022 negotiations in Istanbul.”