The Times, in an article with fragments of an interview with the deputy head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, wrote that negotiations with Russia “have been terminated because there is no progress.” The diplomat said that these were not his words, but “the thoughts of journalists”

The Times newspaper published an article with excerpts from an interview with Ukraine's First Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislitsa, which said that Ukraine's negotiations with Russia in 2025 did not lead to significant progress and "have now ceased." Kislitsa said , commenting on this publication, that journalists “should distinguish the author’s opinions and assumptions of journalists and correspondents from direct quotes.”

In an interview, Kislitsa said that since the summer, Kyiv has been striving to get Ukraine’s international partners to take more active actions designed to push Vladimir Putin to a personal meeting with Vladimir Zelensky.

As The Times notes, Sergei Kislitsa, on behalf of the President of Ukraine, is overseeing the peace process with the participation of Russia, the United States and their NATO allies.

Amendment. Initially, the news reported, with reference to an interview with Sergei Kislitsa to The Times journalists, that Ukraine had stopped negotiations with Russia. In reality this is not the case. The Times' report, based on the interview, does not explicitly indicate that this is an exact quote. Meduza apologizes to readers for the mistake.

• Russia and Ukraine held three rounds of negotiations in Istanbul in 2025. During the negotiations, the parties agreed to exchange prisoners of war and the bodies of dead soldiers. During the third round,which lasted less than an hour, Kiev proposed a complete ceasefire at the front, and Russia proposed a ceasefire for one or two days.
• Ukraine has long been in favor of holding negotiations between Vladimir Zelensky and Vladimir Putin. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the meeting between the presidents needs to be carefully prepared so that, in his words, the situation does not worsen, but ends.