MOSCOW, August 6. /TASS/. Kiev aims to prepare the ground for ending the conflict by the end of this year, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said, according to a statement released on his website.
Rhetoric that Kiev is seeking peace has lately increased amid the successes of Russian forces in the special military operation. Opinion polls show that a growing number of people favor holding negotiations with Russia in Ukraine.
However, analysts at Ukraine’s Strana news portal have said Zelensky’s recent remarks that he is ready to launch peace talks do not mean that he really means to put an end to the hostilities but that they may imply "a major maneuver" in pursuit of quite different goals. Russian Deputy Foreign Ministry Spokesman Andrey Nastasyin has said that Moscow sees that neither Kiev nor the West has the political will for peace.
On June 14, Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting with the Foreign Ministry set out the country’s conditions for settling the situation in Ukraine. Among them are the withdrawal of the Ukrainian armed forces from Donbass and Novorossiya and Kiev’s refusal to join NATO. In addition, Russia wants all Western sanctions against it lifted and demands that Ukraine commit to a non-aligned and nuclear-free status. Putin indicated that if Ukraine and the West refuse these conditions, they could change in the future. Kiev rejected the Russian peace plan.