Russia: New effort could build on ’22 Ukraine talks
But Moscow sees no sign Kyiv ready to revive effort
MOSCOW – An aborted 2022 peace deal between Russia and Ukraine could be the basis for new negotiations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that Russia and Ukraine were on the verge of agreeing a deal to end hostilities at talks in Istanbul in April 2022, but that Ukraine backed away from it once Russian troops fell back from near Kyiv.
The deal is reported to have included clauses demanding that Ukraine adopt a geopolitically neutral status and not join NATO, limit the size of its armed forces, and grant a special status to eastern Ukraine – all things that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made clear he opposes.
In remarks on Thursday, Putin again raised the subject of potential peace talks and said he was open for what he called realistic negotiations but not for talks Ukraine is holding that seek to bypass Moscow.
Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said a lot had changed since 2022, including what he said was the addition to Russian territory of four new regions, a reference to the parts of Ukraine which Moscow has claimed as its own.
But Peskov said the aborted Istanbul deal could still be the basis for new talks and that Russia was ready for that. When asked if Moscow sensed any readiness from the Ukrainian side for talks, however, Peskov said: “No, we don’t sense that.”
Ukraine says it wants all of its territory back, including Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, and for every Russian soldier to leave its territory.
Kyiv: Infrastructure damaged
Attacks by Russian drones in southern Ukraine overnight caused a fire at an energy facility in the Dnipropetrovsk region and damaged critical infrastructure in the Kherson region, Ukrainian authorities said on Friday.
Ukraine forces shot down 16 of 17 drones. Russia also used one Kh-59 guided air missile for the attack, the Ukrainian military said via the Telegram messaging app.
Drone debris caused a fire at the energy facility, which was not identified.
The emergency services have put out the fire, according to a Friday morning statement from Serhiy Lysak, Dnipropetrovsk’s region governor.
The overnight attack also damaged a critical infrastructure facility and seven private residences in the Kherson region, with no casualties reported, according to Kherson regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin.
American missing in east Ukraine
Russell Bentley, an American who fought against Ukrainian forces, is missing in the Russian-controlled Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, police there said on Friday, adding that a search was underway.
Bentley went missing on April 8, they said. The online news outlet Mash said he had disappeared after a district in the city of Donetsk was shelled by Ukrainian forces.
Bentley, 64, is a self-declared supporter of Russian-backed forces in Ukraine. He joined pro-Russian fighters in eastern Ukraine in 2014, the Russian state news agency RIA reported.