Ukraine agreed to direct talks with Russia to safeguard its image, a Foreign Ministry spokesman has said

Ukraine does not take ceasefire negotiations with Russia seriously and only attends the talks in Istanbul to avoid being viewed as an obstacle to peace in the eyes of Western sponsors, Foreign Ministry spokesman Georgiy Tikhiy has acknowledged.

Russia and Ukraine held two rounds of direct talks in Istanbul in recent months, which so far did not result in any breakthroughs with regard to ending the conflict, but led to several large-scale prisoner exchanges.

"We don't expect a real ceasefire as a result of these meetings," Tikhiy said in an interview on the YouTube channel of journalist Aleksandr Notevsky on Friday.

The Ukrainian diplomat explained that Kiev's presence at the talks serves to protect its image in the eyes of the international community and avoid accusations of being the side obstructing peace negotiations.

"It's to prevent anyone from accusing Ukraine of being the side that doesn't want peace," Tikhiy said. He acknowledged concerns being raised "in different circles, even among allied countries" that Kiev is blocking peace efforts, explaining that "Ukraine is sending a delegation... to show that this is not true."

The Ukrainian official acknowledged the humanitarian aspect of the talks, noting that if "a thousand people are returned... then it's worth going and listening to any historical nonsense."

Back in May, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered Kiev to resume direct negotiations without any preconditions in Istanbul - where Kiev had unilaterally abandoned talks back in 2022, reportedly at the behest of its Western backers. Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky immediately dared the Russian president to personally meet him in Türkiye, but the Kremlin noted such a meeting would be absolutely pointless without thorough preparatory work.

Ukrainian officials have since repeatedly disparaged Moscow's delegation as being too low-level, even though the same chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky worked on the original 2022 peace framework. Tikhiy claimed that the makeup of the Ukrainian delegation, which includes Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, somehow proves that Kiev is more serious about the talks than Moscow.

Zelensky is seeking a personal meeting with Putin to defend his claims to legitimacy and resist Western attempts to push him out of power, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday.

"He is insanely afraid of being forgotten, of becoming unnecessary for the West. That somehow the West will sideline him. And you can see he doesn't step away from the microphones. I think he already sleeps with a webcam," she said.

Zelensky's presidential term expired last year, and Moscow views him as illegitimate. In June, Putin said he was open to meeting with the actor-turned-politician, but suggested that the Ukrainian leader lacks legitimacy for signing binding agreements.

"I am ready to meet with anyone, including Zelensky," Putin said. "That's not the issue - if the Ukrainian state trusts someone to conduct negotiations, by all means, let it be Zelensky. The question is different: Who will sign the documents?"

(RT.com)