 "Russia says Ukraine trying to 'torpedo' US-backed peace talks ahead of Trump-Zelenskyy Sunday meeting")
Russia on Friday accused Ukraine of attempting to “sabotage” negotiations over a US proposal to halt its military offensive, claiming that the text Kyiv submitted this week was “radically different” from the version Moscow had agreed on with Washington.
“Our ability to make the final push and reach an agreement will depend on our own work and the political will of the other party,” AFP quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on television.
“Especially in a context where Kyiv and its sponsors - notably within the European Union, who are not in favour of an agreement - have stepped up efforts to torpedo it,” added Ryabkov.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to meet US President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday to discuss his revised version of a US-backed plan.
“Without an adequate resolution of the problems at the origin of this crisis, it will be quite simply impossible to reach a definitive accord,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.
He added that any agreement must “remain within the limits” set by Trump and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin during their Alaska meeting in August, warning that otherwise “no accord can be reached.”
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View AllRyabkov also claimed, “This plan, if we can call it that, differs radically from the 27 points that we drew up in recent weeks since early December in collaboration with the American side.”
Zelenskyy’s new 20-point proposal suggests freezing the current front line while allowing Ukraine to pull back troops from the east, potentially creating demilitarised buffer zones.
With inputs from agencies
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