The Kremlin says Russia will continue its invasion of Ukraine regardless of attempts to bring Moscow to the negotiating table.
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov attempted to lay the blame at Kyiv’s door, despite Russia ordering tens of thousands of troops to attack Ukraine in February 2022 and Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s repeated calls for talks with Vladimir Putin this year.
Moscow has been seen by experts to be paying token gestures to peace talks – including sending only low-level delegations to meet Ukrainian teams in Turkey – in order to keep Donald Trump on side while pursuing its real goals on the battlefield.
“We are ready to resolve the problem by political and diplomatic means,” Peskov claimed.
“But so far we do not see reciprocity from Kyiv in this. So we shall continue the special military operation.”
Russian officials use the term “special military operation” to refer to its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and repeated, widespread bombing of civilian centres.
