Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday he hasn't seen Russia's peace settlement proposal, describing it as "another Russian deception."
"Even the so-called 'memorandum,' which they promised and allegedly spent over a week preparing – no one has seen it yet. It has not been shared with Ukraine. It has not been shared with our partners," Zelensky said in his nightly address to the nation.
On Wednesday, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow is ready to present a draft peace memorandum to Ukraine during the next round of direct negotiations that the Kremlin proposed for June 2 in Istanbul.
Zelensky noted that Russians "are doing everything to ensure the meetings are meaningless," and called for ramping up pressure on Moscow by introducing new sanctions.
Ukraine and Russia's negotiating teams met for the first time in over three years in Istanbul on May 16, but failed to reach an agreement on a ceasefire. The talks resulted in a deal to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each and to resume negotiations after both sides outlined their visions for a future ceasefire.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that Moscow had not received an answer from Kyiv on the proposal to continue negotiations on June 2 in Istanbul, as quoted by Reuters.
