Ukraine and Russia said they were open to the possibility of talks to end Europe’s biggest war in 80 years, as Moscow revealed that its contacts with the team of new US president Donald Trump had “intensified” recently.
As heavy fighting continued in eastern Ukraine and Russia’s Kursk region on Wednesday, the warring neighbours each released 150 prisoners of war and Kyiv blamed Moscow’s security services for a string of deadly explosions at military draft offices around Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian president Vladimir Putin believed his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, had “significant problems de jure in terms of his legitimacy. But despite this, Russia remains open to negotiations”.
Mr Putin claims Mr Zelenskiy has no right to sign any potential agreement on behalf of Ukraine because his five-year term would have expired last year, under normal circumstances.
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However, under martial law declared in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, all elections are banned in Ukraine.
“The elections will take place after the hot phase of the war is over and martial law is lifted,” Mr Zelenskiy said in an interview on British journalist Piers Morgan’s YouTube channel.
“The key issue isn’t just legal - it’s human. How will soldiers in trenches vote? What about millions of Ukrainians in occupied territories. Do their voices no longer matter? And what about eight million Ukrainians forced abroad by war?”
Mr Zelenskiy indicated that a 2022 decree barring Ukrainian officials from holding talks with Mr Putin – whom Kyiv regards as a war criminal – would not prevent him negotiating with Russia’s autocratic leader of 25 years.
“We will be speaking with Putin . . . If that is the only setup in which we can bring peace to the citizens of Ukraine and not lose people, definitely, we will go for this setup,” he said.
“I believe we are ready to move to the diplomatic track - there must be the US, Europe, Ukraine and Russia [at the table].”
Mr Trump said last Sunday his administration was “having very serious discussions about that [Ukraine] war. We’re trying to get it ended”.
But did not say whether he had spoken to Mr Zelenskiy or Mr Putin since returning to the White House last month.
“There are indeed contacts between certain agencies and they have intensified recently,” Mr Peskov said on Wednesday. “I can’t share any more details.”
One person was killed and four injured in an explosion near a draft office in the western Ukrainian city of Kamianets-Podilskyi, following two similar incidents in other parts of the country over the last week.
Ukrainian national police chief Ivan Vyhovsky said Russia’s special services were behind the attacks and wanted to “destabilise the situation and create a negative attitude towards the security and defence forces”.
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