Medvedev Calls Russia’s Сurrent Condition for Moscow-Kiev Talks ‘Children’s Warm-Up’

In late August, Chairman of the Russian State Duma’s International Affairs Committee Leonoid Slutsky said that Moscow will consider sitting down with Kiev if Ukrainian authorities are ready for the “full-fledged and unconditional de-Nazification” of Ukraine.

Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev has commented on the latest remarks by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pertaining to his unwillingness to conduct a dialogue with Moscow.

On Monday, Medvedev wrote in his Telegram account that “a certain Zelensky said that he would not engage in dialogue with those who put forward ultimatums.”

“The current ‘ultimatums’ are a children's warm-up ahead of [Moscow’s] future demands. And he [Zelensky] knows them. They include the total surrender of the Kiev regime on Russia's terms,” the Russian Security Council deputy chairman pointed out.

The remarks followed Zelensky telling CNN that Kiev was not ready to sit down for talks with Moscow, which he claimed sets forth ultimatums.

This came after Leonid Slutsky, the chairman of the Russian Lower House (State Duma)’s International Affairs Committee, stressed late last month that Moscow is ready to consider resuming negotiations with Kiev only in the event of Ukraine's unconditional surrender.

He added that Russia will consider the negotiation process if – apart from the unconditional surrender - the Ukrainian side is ready for “a qualitative reduction in its armed forces, and complete unconditional de-Nazification, namely, the liberation of Ukrainian territory from Nazis.”

The statement was preceded by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stating in late July that Moscow is ready to resume full-scale talks with Kiev and that the ball is in Ukraine's court, but that so far Ukrainian authorities have clearly shown an unwillingness to launch the process.

Lavrov earlier lashed out at Zelensky over his stance on the resumption of negotiations between Kiev and Moscow.

“The talks, in his opinion, should be held without any intermediaries and only after Ukraine regains control of the territory (held) as of February 23. The fact that this is not serious does not need to be explained and proved to anyone,” Lavrov told reporters in May.

Russian-Ukrainian Negotiations Gridlocked

Russian-Ukrainian talks kicked off in late February, when the delegations held two face-to-face meetings in Belarus, which was followed by a decision to continue them on a daily basis via video links. At the end of March, the delegations held another round of talks in Istanbul, where the head of the Russian delegation Vladimir Medinsky said that the Ukrainian side had submitted its written proposals for a future peace treaty, seen by Moscow as a step forward.

The Kremlin hailed the move, announcing that in a show of goodwill, it had decided to regroup Russian troops moving to the Kiev and Chernigov regions, as part of Russia’s ongoing special operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine, which was launched on February 24th.

Additionally, Moscow called for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s meeting with Zelensky, which the Kremlin said should coincide with the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers initialing the peace treaty.

Lavrov then said, however, that Ukraine had started backtracking on its own proposals and creating numerous provocations in order to slow down the negotiation process. In particular, he added, the Ukrainian side unveiled its draft deal with Russia, which Lavrov said was out of line with proposals which were agreed in Istanbul and which pertained to Crimea. The Russian foreign minister added that Kiev had also changed its stance on the draft deal’s provisions related to military exercises, not mentioning the need to obtain Russia's go-ahead for the drills.