Today Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that there are ongoing and direct negotiations with Ukraine at the level of the heads of the Russian and Ukrainian delegations. The heads of the two delegations have been Russia’s Vladimir Medinsky and Ukraine’s Rustem Umerov. It is now unclear what Kiev plans, as Umerov was just booted out as Minister of Defense, with a future yet to be defined. The much-discussed idea for Umerov to become Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S. also, and rather unexpectedly, has gone up in smoke.
At his press briefing, Peskov explained, as reported by Anadolu Agency: “We are conducting direct negotiations with representatives of the Kiev regime. Here we are talking about direct negotiations. However, they are conducted with the mediation efforts of the U.S.”
Asked about the continuation of the peace process, he said that they were awaiting proposals from Ukraine to begin the third round of talks. “The third round will have to be held, and discussions will begin on the third round of those draft memorandums that the parties have previously exchanged.” He repeated the agenda laid out some months ago: discussions on the draft memoranda toward a future peace agreement following exchanges and procedures agreed in Istanbul.
Curious behavior in Kiev today suggests a nervous tic over the word “Istanbul.”
Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War announced that they have received 1,000 more deceased bodies, but then made a point to Ukrainska Pravda that this is not related to agreements reached in Istanbul. Rather, unlike the previous 5,000 bodies they received recently, in four separate deliveries, under the Istanbul agreement, this was just a part of “ongoing planned operations.”
However, Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation at the Istanbul talks, made a more straightforward announcement on Telegram: “In continuation of the Istanbul agreements, another 1,000 bodies of Ukrainian armed forces soldiers were handed over to Ukraine today.”
Now, one can only wonder, if Kiev could include progress on the draft memoranda under these same ‘ongoing planned operations,’ perhaps all could be solved!
