‘Ball is in the Ukrainian court’: Russia is ready to resume peace negotiations with Kyiv in Türkiye

Russia's Foreign Ministry said that the country is ready to resume the peace deal negotiation with Ukraine in Türkiye. The statement came via the Russian state news agency TASS as the war between the two nations is about to reach its fourth year. The last time delegations of both countries met for the discussion was in July this year. The talks lasted only 40 minutes and ended without any result.

TASS quoted Alexei Polishchuk, director of the ministry’s second department for CIS countries, as saying that Turkish officials had “repeatedly urged" both Moscow and Kyiv to restart dialogue.

“The Russian team is ready for this — the ball is in the Ukrainian court," Alexei Polishchuk said. During the July talks, Ukraine proposed an August summit between its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Türkiye. Moscow said Putin will only meet Zelensky on Russian soil. Kyiv refused the demand.

This came after Ukraine alleged in fresh allegations against Russia that Putin's army was using a missile which led to the collapse of a key Cold War–era arms control pact with the United States in the past. Volodymyr Zelensky's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the Russian forces have deployed the ground-launched 9M729 cruise missile. The weapon is also known as the SSC-8 to NATO.

“The use of this system proves Russia’s complete disregard for international arms control norms," Sybiha said in a statement.

The missile was at the centre of the US decision to withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019. The US had argued that the range of the weapon is wya more than the treaty’s 500-kilometre limit. Russia had denied the claim. Then-President Donald Trump formally pulled the US out of the pact, citing repeated Russian violations.