The EU promised to call on Kyiv for dialogue if Russia stops strikes

The countries of the European Union will be able to call on Kyiv for a dialogue with Moscow only if Russia stops striking at the territory of Ukraine. About it declared Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in a conversation with the newspaper Il Messaggero.

“Someone is trying to ask some European countries to soften their position in favor of negotiations with [президентом России Владимиром] Putin. But an agreement will only be possible if Russia decides to stop hostilities. <...> Only then will Europe be able to ask Ukraine to start negotiations,” he said.

Since October 10, 2022, the Russian Ministry of Defense has been regularly reporting missile strikes against military command and control facilities and infrastructure facilities in Ukraine. Putin then said that such a decision was made in response to Ukrainian attempts at terrorist attacks on Russian territory, including an explosion on the Crimean bridge. He emphasized that the reaction to such actions would be tough.

The Kremlin has repeatedly declared about the lack of prospects for negotiations with Ukraine, pointing to the legislative prohibition of Kyiv to negotiate with Russia. In particular, today the press secretary of the President Dmitry Peskov indicated that there are no conditions for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine at the moment. At the same time, Moscow has repeatedly stated that it is open to negotiations.

Since the beginning of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine, the parties have held negotiations several times in February and March 2022. The first three face-to-face meetings took place in Belarus in February-March, and the fourth round of the Russian-Ukrainian dialogue was held on March 29 in Istanbul. After that, the process was frozen, since Kyiv withdrew from it. On October 4, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree refusing to negotiate with Russia as long as Putin is its president.