Vladimir Putin and Volodimir Zelenski. Photo source: nhac nguyen / AFP / Profimedia
The President of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, transmitted from Turkey, where they are for peace negotiations with Moscow, a two -way message to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Lenta reports.
“I'm here,” Zelenski said, answering the journalists' questions about what they would like to send to the Russian leader.
In addition, he questioned whether the Russian delegation has the mandate to make decisions on behalf of Moscow and evaluated the composition of the Russian negotiation team as “decorative” and made up of “puppets”.
“The Russian level (delegation) level is not officially known to me, but as far as we see, it seems rather at a decorative level. We have to understand what level the Russian delegation has, what mandate it has and if it can make any decision,” Zelenski said.
We recall that Vladimir Putin proposed direct negotiations on Sunday with Ukraine on Thursday in Istanbul, “without any prior condition.” The Kremlin kept the suspense on who will go to Turkey until Wednesday night, when he announced that the delegation will be part of the presidential counselor Vladimir Medinski and the Deputy Minister of Defense Alexander Fomin.
After Moscow announced the composition of the delegation, an American official said that Trump, who is on a tour in the Middle East with visits to three countries, will not participate either, although the American leader had previously declared that he takes the option to go to Istanbul.
Russia, angry reaction to Zelenski's comments
The spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zaharova, reacted harshly to Zelenski's criticisms regarding the level of the Russian delegation.
“Who uses the word 'puppet'? A clown? A loser? Someone without any education,” Zaharova said.
The Russian Foreign Minister on Thursday, Zelenski on Thursday as “painful” because he asked for his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to participate in person in the direct discussions between Kiev and Moscow to take place in Istanbul.
“First of all, Zelenski said he asked for Putin to come in person. Well, he is painful,” Sergei Lavrov said in a speech to the diplomats in Moscow, broadcast on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Vladimir Medinski, the chief negotiator of the Russian delegation, said instead that the “objective” of discussions scheduled in Turkey with Kiev is to “establish a sustainable peace” in Ukraine.
He was also declared “determined”, together with his delegation, “to carry out a serious professional activity”.
“The objective of the direct negotiations proposed by Vladimir Putin is to establish a sustainable and solid peace by eliminating the profound causes of the conflict,” Vladimir Medinski wrote.
The latest evolutions regarding peace negotiations are transmitted LiveText by HotNews.ro.
