“Russia wants Ukraine to lift the ban on negotiations with Putin,” – Peskov said

Moscow wants Ukraine to lift its ban on negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin in order to discuss Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s proposal to stop strikes on civilian targets.

This was stated to journalists by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

According to him, this initiative “needs to be discussed first, taking into account the experience of the Easter ceasefire.” He added that Russia wants “to understand Ukraine’s willingness not to carry out such strikes,” but in order to discuss this initiative, “steps must be taken to remove the legal obstacles to such contacts.”

“There are no concrete plans, but President Putin has confirmed his willingness to discuss this issue. Given the analysis of the Easter ceasefire experience—which did take place—there’s no specific agenda at this stage… The president explained just yesterday how complex this topic is when he answered a journalist’s question. That is, when speaking about civilian infrastructure, one must clearly differentiate in what situations such facilities may become military targets and when they may not. If there is a willingness and openness on the Ukrainian side, some steps should probably be taken to legally remove obstacles to such contacts, if there is such readiness,” Peskov said.

Peskov also noted that resolving the conflict in Ukraine will not happen quickly.

“We continue our contacts with the Americans through various channels. The issue is so complex—related to resolution—that we definitely shouldn’t impose strict time limits or try to fit a viable resolution into a short time frame. That’s probably a futile effort. But the work is indeed ongoing,” the Kremlin representative said.

Previously, Peskov had stated that the Kremlin was waiting for Kyiv’s response to Putin’s proposal for direct talks to discuss halting strikes on civilian infrastructure.