The path to a sustainable ceasefire will be a key topic of the third round of talks between Russia and Ukraine, with a new meeting likely to take place in late June. This view was expressed by the chairman of the State Duma’s International Affairs Committee and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), Leonid Slutsky, in a broadcast on the Rossiya-24 TV channel.

“Moving towards a sustainable ceasefire will be one of the key issues in the third round [of negotiations]. It will probably take place there, in Istanbul, at the end of the month,” Slutsky said.

He recalled that Russia had offered Ukraine two conditions for the ceasefire. “The first option is quick: Ukrainian armed forces simply withdraw from the territory of four regions of the Russian Federation. The second option is long-term: the end of mobilization in Ukraine, the end of arms supplies from the West, the creation of a bilateral monitoring center, the lifting of martial law,” the head of the Duma committee explained.

According to him, this flexibility is “the key to reaching a compromise.”