Moscow Rejects US Role, Says Ceasefire Memo for Kyiv Only

Russia said on Wednesday that only Kyiv will receive Russia’s version of a ceasefire memorandum and rejected involvement from other mediators. 

The comment by the Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Maria Zakharova came as a direct snub to Washington’s Ukraine Envoy Keith Kellogg, who said he had already received Kyiv’s version and is now awaiting the same from Moscow.  

Responding to a reporter’s question about Kellogg’s Tuesday comments, Zakharova said there are no agreements with the US or other mediators to share Moscow’s version of the document. 

“We agreed that each side – Russia and Ukraine – would prepare its own vision of the modalities of settlement and ceasefire, after which they would exchange the relevant documents directly and discuss them at the next round,” Zakharova said, according to a readout of the press conference shared by Russian media RIA Novosti. 

“We had no agreements on the mediation of the US or other countries in the exchange of projects,” she added. 

Kellogg, who slammed Moscow’s weekend strikes across Ukraine, said on Tuesday that he had already received the document from Kyiv but requires the same from Moscow to “meld them together.”

However, Kellogg’s statement contradicts Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s earlier statement that the “memorandum” is to be negotiated with Kyiv directly, without US participation. 

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The Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also turned down Kellogg’s suggestion that the talks might be held in Switzerland’s Geneva, suggesting that it would be in Turkey’s Istanbul instead – the same venue as the most recent Kyiv-Moscow negotiations. 

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that Kyiv has not received Russia’s version of the memorandum, which he said was supposed to arrive right after the two completed a prisoner swap over the weekend. 

Zelensky said he has instructed Defense Minister Rustem Umerov – who headed the Ukrainian delegation at the Istanbul talks – to contact the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, for the memorandum, but to no avail. 

“They assured us: ‘It will happen, it will happen.’ But we never waited for anything. Nobody waited. We turned to the US – they are also waiting. Everyone is waiting,” Zelensky said, according to Ukrainska Pravda. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov later said on Wednesday that Medinsky would present Moscow’s version of the document to the Kyiv delegation in Istanbul on Monday, RIA Novosti reported.

It is unclear if Kyiv has agreed to the talks. 

The Kremlin has not revealed its version of the memorandum at the time of publication, but Reuters, citing “Russian sources with knowledge of the negotiations,” said the document would include the same maximalist demands as before to include along with a freeze on NATO expansion, removal of sanctions, and Ukraine’s permanent neutrality – effectively calling for Ukraine’s surrender.