President Volodymyr Zelenskyy considers the "memorandum" handed over to Ukraine by russia on June 2 to be an ultimatum and further similar meetings in Istanbul meaningless. Zelenskyy said this during a meeting with the media, which was broadcast on the air of a telethon, Ukrainian News Agency reports.
"You can't call this a memorandum. This is still an ultimatum from the russian side to us... It looks like "PR" and an ultimatum," he said.
Zelenskyy made it clear that the text of the memorandum on the conditions for ending the war, which was published by the russian media, corresponds to the document handed over to the Ukrainian side.
He believes that the russian federation did not hand over this "document" to Ukraine before the meeting in Istanbul because they understood that this was an ultimatum and Ukraine had the right not to come to the meeting, because it would become clear that there would be no content to the meeting.
Zelenskyy also noted that the russian federation is making it clear that they are ready for prisoner exchanges.
"We are ready for exchanges, but continuing diplomatic meetings in Istanbul at a level that does not solve anything, further, I consider meaningless. In my opinion, the exchanges are going on and should go on. The "russians" are not ready for a ceasefire, at least that level of the delegation is not ready to solve it. They themselves told us that this is a matter of leaders," he said.
Zelenskyy said that he is offering russia a ceasefire before a meeting at the level of leaders.
"We offer a meeting from Monday on any day. Why a ceasefire before a meeting of leaders? We will meet, if there is no understanding, then the ceasefire will end on the same day. If we see that we can continue the dialogue, then the ceasefire will be extended with American monitoring, with American guarantees of mediation. If the "russians" do not want a long ceasefire, then our meeting can be, starting from tomorrow, on any day," he said.
Zelenskyy noted that he is ready for the proposed quadrilateral meeting of the leaders of Ukraine, russia, Turkey and the United States at any day, proposed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on June 2, the second meeting of the delegations of Ukraine and russia took place in Istanbul (Turkey) in the presence of the Turkish side, at which the parties exchanged proposals for a ceasefire and conditions for ending the war, and for a new release of prisoners.
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