MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia is ready to resume peace negotiations with Ukraine in Istanbul, Russian state news agency TASS cited a foreign ministry official as saying on Wednesday.
No face-to-face talks have taken place between the two sides since they met in the Turkish city on July 23. TASS quoted the official, Alexei Polishchuk, as saying that Turkish officials had repeatedly urged a resumption of the peace negotiations.
“The Russian team is ready for this, the ball is in the Ukrainian court,” he said.
Ukraine rejects Kremlin assertions that it is to blame for the stalled peace process, as the war nears the end of its fourth year.
At the July 23 meeting, which lasted just 40 minutes, the Ukrainian side proposed a meeting in August between President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin subsequently said Putin was willing to meet Zelenskiy, but only in Moscow – a condition rejected by Kyiv.
(Reporting by Reuters, Writing by Mark Trevelyan and Felix Light; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
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