No peace talks underway due to Russia's fault - Kuleba

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said this in an interview with Forbes, Ukrinform reports.

"The status of the peace talks is a strike on Vinnytsia, a strike on Mykolaiv, strikes on Kharkiv, other cities, and Russian assaults in eastern Ukraine. The Russians repeat a mantra: 'Since February 24, our goals have remained unchanged, only the method of achieving them has changed.' The method of a frontal attack on Ukraine with the aim of immediate destruction was changed to concentrated strikes and advance from the east. But the goal remained unchanged - to destroy us," the minister said.

He added that with each such statement, the Russians demonstrate not their readiness for negotiations, but the unchanging ultimate goal of this "operation" - the destruction of Ukraine.

"There are currently no peace talks due to the fault of the Russian side, and no one is meeting on this topic," Kuleba said.

In his opinion, the situation on the battlefield should be changed first, because the negotiations are directly related to it.

"I tell all partners a simple thing: Russia must sit down at the negotiating table after its defeat on the battlefield. Otherwise, it will again be the language of ultimatums," Kuleba said.

He added that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky adheres to a principled position on this issue: "He does not rule out the possibility of negotiations, but now there are no grounds for this in view of Russia's aggressive behavior. He communicated this very clearly to the leaders of the countries who hinted that we negotiate. These leaders also stopped talking about it."