MOSCOW: Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said on Thursday that the issue of who gets what territory was not the only one holding up a potential deal to end the fighting in Ukraine.
Russia wants Ukrainian forces to withdraw from the roughly 20 percent of Donetsk region which the Russian army does not control. Kyiv has said it does not want to gift Moscow territory which Russia has not won on the battlefield.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that active work was under way to reconcile the issue at US-mediated talks. He described the disagreement as a key remaining issue that was “very difficult” to resolve.
When asked on Thursday whether he agreed that the territorial question was the only outstanding one, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said: “I don’t think so.”
He did not name the other key issues yet to be resolved.
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Kremlin says issue of territory is not the only one holding up a potential Ukraine peace deal
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Kremlin says issue of territory is not the only one holding up a potential Ukraine peace deal
- Russia wants Ukrainian forces to withdraw from the roughly 20 percent of Donetsk region
- Kyiv has said it does not want to gift Moscow territory
Russia, Ukraine exchange bodies of killed soldiers
MOSCOW: Russia has handed over the remains of 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers to Kyiv, a Moscow official said Thursday, with Ukraine returning the bodies of 35 Russians in exchange.
The two sides regularly exchange the remains of troops killed in combat, one of the few areas of cooperation.
“The bodies of 1,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers were given to Ukraine. Russia was given the bodies of 35 dead Russian fighters,” Moscow’s top negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said on social media.
He posted a photo showing men in white overalls and blue gloves lifting a white body bag from the back of a refrigerated truck.
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers have been killed in the four-year war, triggered when Moscow launched its full-scale offensive against Ukraine in February 2022.
Negotiators from both countries were in Geneva on Thursday for separate talks with US officials, part of a fraught negotiation process being pushed by President Donald Trump in a bid to end the fighting.
The two sides regularly exchange the remains of troops killed in combat, one of the few areas of cooperation.
“The bodies of 1,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers were given to Ukraine. Russia was given the bodies of 35 dead Russian fighters,” Moscow’s top negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said on social media.
He posted a photo showing men in white overalls and blue gloves lifting a white body bag from the back of a refrigerated truck.
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers have been killed in the four-year war, triggered when Moscow launched its full-scale offensive against Ukraine in February 2022.
Negotiators from both countries were in Geneva on Thursday for separate talks with US officials, part of a fraught negotiation process being pushed by President Donald Trump in a bid to end the fighting.
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