KIEV, December 14. /TASS/. No active efforts are currently being taken to organize direct talks between Ukrainian and Russian Presidents, Vladimir Zelensky and Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said on Tuesday.

"Such talks were kicked off but now they are not in an active phase," he said.

During a telephone conversation with US President Joe Biden last week, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said he was ready for direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Commenting on Zelensky’s initiative to have a personal meeting, the Russian president said back on April 22 that if his Ukrainian counterpart wanted to discuss the problems of Donbass he should better meet with the leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. According to the Russian president, this is the starting point for the settlement in Donbass, and any third country, including Russia, is to join the process only after direct contacts with the Donbass republics. He noted however that he was ready to receive Zelensky in Moscow at any convenient time to discuss bilateral relations. Moscow has repeatedly said that the conflict in Donbass is Ukraine’s domestic affair and Russia, along with the OSCE, France and Germany, is only a mediator in the settlement effort under the Minsk agreements.