A Ukrainian decree from 2022 ruling out negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin raises the question of who could sit at the table in potential peace talks aimed at ending the two countries’ three-year war, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “is still legally prohibited from negotiating with the Russian side”, Mr Peskov noted during his daily conference call with reporters.
He said it was “positive” that Mr Zelensky had expressed readiness on Tuesday to negotiate peace with Russia as soon as possible.
“But the details have not changed yet,” Mr Peskov added, apparently referring to the Ukrainian decree.
The war has been raging for three years (AP)
Neither Ukrainian nor western officials have recently mentioned the September 2022 presidential decree, signed seven months after Russia’s cross-border invasion, in the context of US President Donald Trump’s efforts to stop the fighting.
On Monday, the Trump administration suspended its crucial military aid to Ukraine as the US sought to pressure Mr Zelensky into negotiating an end to the war.
The US has also paused its intelligence sharing with Ukraine, cutting off the flow of vital information that has helped the war-torn nation target Russian invaders, but Trump administration officials said on Wednesday that positive talks between Washington and Kyiv mean it may only be a short suspension.
Information about Russia’s intentions and military movements has been critical to Ukraine’s defence and a strong indication of support from the US and other western allies.
“We have taken a step back and are pausing and reviewing all aspects of this relationship,” national security adviser Mike Waltz said on Wednesday.
Comments from top Trump administration officials suggest the pause is part of the broader negotiations between Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky to negotiate a peace deal with Russia, and that intelligence could begin flowing to Ukraine again soon.
CIA director John Ratcliffe called the suspension a “pause” and said it came after the disastrous meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky in the Oval Office last week. Mr Ratcliffe said Mr Trump wanted to know that Mr Zelensky was serious about peace.
“On the military front and the intelligence front, the pause that allowed that to happen will go away, and I think we’ll work shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine as we have,” Mr Ratcliffe said.
The CIA declined to respond to questions about the change in intelligence sharing.
Ukrainian forces are toiling to slow advances by the bigger Russian army along the 600-mile front line, especially in the eastern Donetsk region. The Russian onslaught, which has been costly for its troops, hasn’t yet brought a strategically significant breakthrough for the Kremlin.
The war of attrition has killed tens of thousands of soldiers and more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians.
Mr Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer could travel together to Washington, the French government spokesperson said.
We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity.
“It is envisaged that President Macron could eventually travel again to Washington with President Zelensky and his British counterpart,” spokesperson Sophie Primas told reporters.
Mr Macron was due to give a televised address to the nation later on Wednesday about what he called the “great uncertainty” in global affairs.
The three leaders travelled separately to Washington last week for meetings with Mr Trump.
In the early months of the war, Mr Zelensky repeatedly called for a personal meeting with Mr Putin but was rebuffed. After the Kremlin’s decision in September 2022 to illegally annexe four regions of Ukraine – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – Mr Zelensky enacted a decree declaring that holding negotiations with Putin had become impossible.
The decree enacted a decision by Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council to bolster Ukrainian defences and seek more weapons from the country’s Western allies.
The Kremlin said at the time it would wait for Ukraine to sit down for talks on ending the conflict, noting that such a step may not happen until a new Ukrainian president takes office.