Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the document would be handed over to Ukraine when it’s finished.
Moscow is continuing work on a draft memorandum setting out the principles for a potential peace accord with Ukraine, Russia’s
Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday.
Following a call with U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Kremlin was ready to work with Ukrainians on such a document.
Putin said the memorandum would define the principles, details, and timings of a possible settlement.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said work was continuing on the Russian draft and that once the document is ready, it will be handed over to Ukraine.
“Russia continues developing a draft memorandum regarding the future peace treaty, defining a number of aspects, such as the principles of the settlement, the timeline of the potential peace agreement, and the possible ceasefire for a limited time period if relevant agreements are reached,” she told a press conference in Moscow, according to Russian news agency
TASS.
“As soon as the memorandum is ready, and I would like to note that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is literally daily commenting on the process of its development, it will be transferred to Kiev. We hope that the Ukrainian side is doing the same and will send us their draft as they receive the Russian document.”
The first direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv in more than three years took place on May 16 but yielded no pause to hostilities.
Zakharova
accused the West of pushing Finland toward escalating hostilities with Russia, as Helsinki hosts naval drills this month, and alleged that NATO was trying to push the Nordic nation into an all-out confrontation with Moscow.
She said the drills “are quickly turning—with unconditional approval from the Finnish authorities—into another tool that NATO uses to escalate tensions along Russia’s border,” and accused Helsinki’s elites of being “affected by the virus of Russophobia.”
“They are focused solely on achieving the goals related to this war, spending billions of euros from their country’s budget on what is being dictated to them as the West’s narrative,” Zakharova said.
Finland became a member of NATO in 2023, ending a decades-long policy of neutrality.
Speaking in Finland on Tuesday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that he expected the war in Ukraine to drag on because Russia is reluctant to enter negotiations.
“Wars typically end because of economic or military exhaustion on one side or on both sides, and in this war, we are obviously still far from reaching that [situation],” Merz said at a
joint press conference with Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo in Turku, southwest Finland. “So we may have to prepare for a longer duration.”
Merz was in Finland for a meeting with the
Nordic nations. Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland were represented at the summit.
His comments come a day after he
confirmed that Ukraine is now free to strike military targets deep inside Russia using Western-supplied weapons.
“There is no longer any restriction of scope for weapons delivered to Ukraine,” Merz
said during a forum hosted by public broadcaster WDR on May 26. “A country that can only confront an aggressor on its own territory is not defending itself adequately.”
