No deadline set for Ukraine peace memorandum – Kremlin
The Kremlin has not set a deadline for drafting a memorandum with Ukraine outlining steps toward a peace treaty, according to spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that he and US President Donald Trump had agreed during a phone call that the next move toward resolving the Ukraine conflict should be a memorandum outlining the principles and timeline for a peace settlement. Peskov told reporters early on Tuesday that “there is and cannot be a deadline” for finalizing such a document.
”Everyone understandably wants this to be done as quickly as possible, but certainly, the devil is in the details,” Peskov said. He noted that Moscow and Kiev would each draft their own version of the memorandum, after which both sides would face “difficult” negotiations to agree on a single text.
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky responded to Putin’s remarks by stating that his government would wait to receive Moscow’s proposal before drafting its own version.
Both Putin and Trump described their call as productive and encouraging. The US president said he anticipated progress within two weeks.
”If I thought that President Putin did not want to get this over with, I wouldn’t even be talking about it,” Trump told reporters.
The US leader acknowledged that brokering a peace deal would be challenging, citing deep-seated animosities and “very big egos” involved. He called Zelensky “a strong guy” and “not the easiest person to deal with.”
Kiev previously demanded an unconditional 30-day ceasefire from Russia before entering direct negotiations – an idea that Moscow said amounts to asking for time for the Ukrainian military to regroup.
