Currently, Kyiv excludes negotiations and a meeting of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.

“In short, the negotiation process itself and the personal meeting of the presidents do not make sense at the moment,” adviser to the President of Ukraine Mikhail Podolyak is quoted by the Ukrainian media.

Podolyak cited three reasons why negotiations would be useless at this stage, starting with Russia trying to preserve and legitimize its territorial gains.

Second, maintaining the status quo would give Moscow breathing space to continue its offensive on new front lines.

And thirdly, Russia must be held accountable for the crimes it committed on the territory of Ukraine. Therefore, negotiations will be possible only after the withdrawal of Russian troops from the territory of Ukraine, Podolyak said.

Then it would be possible to agree on the amount of reparations and the extradition of war criminals, he added.

^{Source: APE – MEB, dpa}