Russia says ‘many’ countries eager to host Ukraine talks but no grounds yet

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov says Qatar and a number of other countries willing to host negotiations but conditions are not yet right.

Russia has thanked Qatar and “many” other countries for expressing interest in hosting talks about bringing the war in Ukraine to an end, but stressed that conditions are not yet right.

“There are no grounds for negotiations yet,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the Izvestia newspaper in an interview published on Wednesday, repeating Russia’s longstanding position on the talks.

“Many countries have declared their readiness to provide their territory … And we are grateful to all countries for such goodwill, including Qatar,” he said.

The Gulf state, in recent months, has mediated several returns of children taken during the war since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

The latest humanitarian exchange was announced late last month, in a deal involving nine Russian and Ukrainian children.

Qatar said in a statement that its role as a mediator in the return of the children was “an extension of its approach to mediation and conflict resolution through peaceful means, in accordance with the principles of international law”.

In the interview, Peskov hailed what he described as Qatar’s effective mediation role on several issues, as well as the growing bilateral relations between the two countries.

His comments came after Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, said on Monday that there could be attempts to begin peace talks with Ukraine next year.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said over the weekend that he sought an early end to the war, adding Ukraine could retake occupied land later through diplomacy if Kyiv’s NATO membership is certain.

This marked a shift from his earlier stance, where he said the conclusion of the war was contingent on Russia returning seized Ukrainian territory.

Russian forces control about 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory and have been advancing lately at the fastest pace since the early days of the war.

The latest remarks also have come weeks after Donald Trump won the presidential election in the United States, Ukraine’s largest supporter in the war.

The US has supplied Ukraine with more than $64.1bn in military aid since 2022 but Trump, who is due to take office in January, has indicated he wants to end the war, which many see as requiring a settlement that will be to Kyiv’s disadvantage.

The Kremlin has said repeatedly it will not negotiate with Zelenskyy unless Ukraine renounces its ambition to join NATO and withdraws troops from territories now controlled by Russian troops. Ukraine on Tuesday said that it would not settle for anything less than membership in the US-led military alliance to guarantee its future security.

US President Joe Biden’s outgoing administration has sought to bolster Ukraine before leaving office, allowing its army to use US-made long-range missiles to strike into Russia.

On Monday, in the latest of similar moves, it approved another military aid package to Kyiv, this time worth $725m.

Last week, Trump picked a retired general, Keith Kellogg, to be his special envoy for the Russia-Ukraine war.

Earlier this year, Kellogg co-authored a strategy paper that called for putting off NATO membership for Ukraine “for an extended period” in exchange for a “peace deal with security guarantees”.