French media: Moscow proposes new round of talks after Trump criticizes Putin, Rubio: "genuine" The Kremlin said Thursday it was waiting for a response from Kyiv to its proposal to hold new talks next Monday in Istanbul, while Ukraine, which accused Russia of stalling, demanded to know Moscow's conditions before any talks. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov talked about Moscow's proposal for new talks with Kyiv in Istanbul during his daily briefing on Thursday. He said, "To the best of my knowledge, no reply has been received so far [...] We must wait for a response from Ukraine." AFP reported that the previous Russia-Ukraine talks on May 16 only resulted in the exchange of prisoners of war. Moscow made the new meeting initiative after Trump criticized Putin as "completely insane" and "playing with fire" last week. Although Ukraine did not refuse, Kyiv emphasized on Wednesday that it hoped to understand the contents of Russia's "memorandum," which was supposed to list Moscow's conditions for reaching a lasting peace agreement, before any talks. US Secretary of State Rubio urged Russia's foreign minister and Kyiv to negotiate sincerely. According to US Department of State spokesperson Tami Bruess, Secretary of State Rubio called Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov on Wednesday and appealed to Moscow for "sincere" negotiations with Ukraine. A US Department of State spokesperson said in a statement that Secretary of State reiterated Trump's appeal to Russian Foreign Minister, "to have sincere constructive dialogue with Ukraine, and emphasized that this is the only way to end this war." Russian Foreign Ministry said that its Foreign Minister Lavrov mentioned to US Secretary of State Blinken during their phone call how Russia intended to conduct talks with Ukrainians in Turkey. However, on Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused Kyiv's request to learn about Russia's "memorandum" in advance. In response, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson George Tishi responded to the Kremlin's statement on X: "The Russians are afraid to hand over their 'memorandum' to Ukraine, which indicates that it may contain unrealistic ultimatums, and they are afraid to expose that they are obstructing the peace process." But he added: "If this is not the case, they should submit this document immediately [...] stop playing these games, because it can only indicate that they may want the next talks to be empty." This conflict was triggered by Russia's large-scale offensive against Ukraine in February 2022. Washington restarted talks aimed at seeking diplomatic solutions in mid-February this year, but so far there have been no results. The Russian and Ukrainian delegations held talks in Istanbul on May 16, which was the first direct peace talks since spring 2022. Source: rfi Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1833477526238220/ Disclaimer: This article represents the author's personal views.