Russia needs to withdraw troops before any talks, says Ukraine

By Natalia Zinets and Umit Bektas and Max Hunder

KIEV/ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Ukraine’s government on Wednesday dismissed former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s comments that Russia wanted a “negotiated solution” to the war, and said any dialogue depended on a ceasefire. and the withdrawal of Russian troops.

Schroeder, a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin and increasingly criticized in Germany for his pro-Russia stance, said last month’s agreement on grain shipments from Ukraine aimed at easing the global crisis of food, can offer a way forward.

Ukraine’s first grain shipment since the start of the war passed through the Bosphorus Strait on Wednesday, en route to Lebanon.

“The good news is that the Kremlin wants a negotiated solution,” Schroeder told Stern magazine and RTL/ntv, adding that he had met with Putin in Moscow last week. “A first success is the grain deal, maybe that can be slowly expanded to a ceasefire.”

In response, Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak described Schroeder as a “voice of the Russian royal court”, and made it clear that the grain deal would not lead to negotiations.

“If Moscow wants dialogue, the ball is in their court. First a ceasefire and troop withdrawal, then constructive dialogue,” Podolyak wrote on Twitter.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said there is nothing more cynical than “Putin’s henchmen” saying Russia is ready to negotiate peace.

“We hear and see this ‘readiness’ every day: artillery strikes, missile terror against civilians, mass crime and atrocities. Russia remains focused on the war, everything else is just a smokescreen,” Kuleba wrote on Twitter.

The grain shipment agreement, brokered by the UN and Turkey, has been hailed as a rare diplomatic success in more than five months of war since Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine’s borders in what he calls a “special military operation.” ”. Attempts at peace negotiations in the early stages of the conflict came to nothing.

But Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy played down the significance of the deal on Wednesday, saying grain shipments were just a fraction of the crop Kiev needs to sell to help save its economy.

The Razoni vessel left Odessa on the Black Sea earlier on Monday carrying 26,527 tonnes of maize to the Lebanese port of Tripoli.

(Report from Reuters newsrooms)

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