NO MORE NATO ENLARGEMENT?
Reuters reported this week that Putin’s conditions for ending the war include a demand that Western leaders pledge in writing to stop enlarging NATO eastwards.
Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said on Friday that Russia’s concern over the eastward enlargement of NATO was fair and Washington did not want to see Ukraine in the US-led military alliance.
Commenting on Kellogg’s statement, Peskov said: “We are pleased that these explanations by the president are understood, including in Washington.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told reporters in Kyiv that the next step after talks in Istanbul would be to try to host a meeting between Trump, Putin, and Zelenskyy.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Kyiv needed to see the Russian proposals in advance for the talks to be “substantive and meaningful,” without spelling out what Kyiv would do if it did not receive the Russian document or a deadline for receiving it.
“We want to end this war this year, and we are interested in establishing a truce, whether it is for 30 days, or for 50 days, or for 100 days,” he said.
Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, told the UN Security Council on Friday that Moscow was ready to consider a ceasefire provided Western states stopped arming Ukraine and Kyiv stopped mobilising troops.
