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Ukraine ignored Russia's settlement proposals, Lavrov says

As the Russian Foreign Minister recalled, the Ukrainian side claimed that the talks in Istanbul achieved nothing, yet the two sides had reached some humanitarian agreements on exchanging prisoners of war and bodies

MOSCOW, December 11. /TASS/. The Kiev regime has ignored Russia's proposals for possible conflict resolution, which were identified during the resumption of direct talks in Istanbul in 2025, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during an ambassadorial roundtable discussion on the settlement in Ukraine.

"This spring, as a confirmation that we want negotiations and political solutions, direct talks resumed in Istanbul at our initiative. Three rounds took place in May, June, and July. We approached these meetings responsibly, we developed and submitted to the Ukrainian side our proposals and a draft memorandum on settlement paths. We suggested creating a Russian-Ukrainian center for monitoring and controlling the ceasefire for specific periods to address humanitarian issues," he said. Lavrov added that all initiatives aimed at advancing bilateral dialogue were rejected, "in fact, ignored."

"Thereby the Ukrainian regime confirmed that it is unwilling to seek any solutions or agreements," Lavrov noted.

Lavrov recalled that the Ukrainian side claimed that the talks in Istanbul were achieving nothing, yet the two sides had reached some humanitarian agreements on exchanging prisoners of war and bodies. "We said, 'Okay, let's create special working groups. One for humanitarian issues, one for military issues, and one for political issues.' This was also ignored. Then the Ukrainian delegation complained that the level of negotiators in Istanbul was insufficiently high, preventing them from making serious decisions. We proposed significantly increasing the level of the negotiating teams. There was no response again," he remarked.

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