Assistant to the President of the russian federation Vladimir Medinsky, who heads the russian delegation at the talks with Ukraine, has stated that the negotiations were stopped at the initiative of the Ukrainian side. He told this in an interview with the Belarusian ONT TV channel.
"The ball is completely on their side. For our part, we are ready to continue the dialogue. But I will emphasize once again: the ball to continue the peace talks is on the Ukrainian side. Freezing the negotiations is entirely Ukraine's initiative", - Medinsky said.
According to Medinsky, russia has never refused negotiations, including at the highest level. However, according to him, "serious preparations" are needed for the meeting of the two presidents, including "documents of high readiness", which are not yet available.
"Heads of states should meet in order to reach final agreements and sign documents, and not to take pictures", - the head of the russian delegation said.
As previously reported, from the point of view of the russian federation, the outcome of the negotiations should be complete surrender of Ukraine: the recognition of the occupied Crimea as russian, the recognition of the statehood of the "DNR/LNR" and the rejection of its own foreign policy.