Ukraine has not yet lifted its self-imposed ban on negotiating with Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said

Kiev needs to scrap its own self-imposed ban on talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin if it hopes to facilitate future bilateral talks regarding the Ukraine conflict, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

On Monday, Putin declared he was ready to discuss a potential unilateral halt on civilian infrastructure strikes in a bilateral format with Kiev. This came after Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky floated the idea of a halt on long-range strikes on non-military targets by both sides in a social media statement on Sunday.

In a press briefing on Tuesday, the Kremlin spokesman was asked if Ukraine's ban on direct talks with Russia could be an obstacle to negotiations on the matter.

"If the Ukrainian side is willing and open, some steps should probably be taken to legally clear these obstacles on the path to such contacts, if there is such a willingness," Peskov told journalists on Tuesday.

Putin's statement was "yet another show of Moscow's readiness" to solve issues via diplomacy, he added.

"So far, we have a de facto/de jure situation, when the Ukrainians themselves have banned such contacts, and no action has been taken to lift this ban," Peskov said in a statement to Russia TV 1 journalist Pavel Zarubin.

In October of 2022, Zelensky signed a decree to ban all talks with Russia for as long as Putin was in charge. The Ukrainian leader has since repeatedly described his hatred of Russia's president and his lack of trust in Moscow.

During Monday's press conference, Putin noted that Zelensky's initial reaction to the Russian offer of the recently-expired Easter ceasefire was that Moscow was playing "a game," rather than being serious.

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Kiev only agreed via a suggestion from "most likely foreign curators" that rejecting such a truce would be a bad media look, Putin said.

(RT.com)