Spanish
Moscow.- The Kremlin rejected today the 30-day truce proposed by Ukraine and several European leaders, considering the threats of sanctions in case of not declaring a ceasefire this Monday "inadmissible".
"Such ultimatum language is inadmissible. One cannot speak to Russia in that language," said Dmitri Peskov, presidential spokesman, in his daily telephone press briefing.
Peskov stressed that it is not the first time that European countries have threatened Moscow with new rounds of sanctions for its military campaign in Ukraine.
"We are determined to seriously seek the path to a lasting peaceful settlement," he stated.
At the same time, he recalled the intervention on Sunday by Russian President, Vladimir Putin, in which he proposed to Ukraine to hold direct negotiations on May 15 in Istanbul "without any preconditions".
Russia, which has always warned that a truce will be used by Kyiv to rearm, considers demanding that it declare a ceasefire a condition.
This approach is "precisely aimed at finding a real diplomatic solution to the Ukrainian crisis, the elimination of the original causes of the conflict and the establishment of a solid peace," Peskov stressed.
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And he highlighted that Putin's peace initiative was supported by "the leaders of many countries", including the BRICS partners, in reference to China and Brazil, whose leaders participated on May 9 in Moscow in the celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany.
Peskov also highlighted that the U.S. President, Donald Trump, called the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, to support the Russian proposal, after which he was willing to travel to Istanbul.
Regarding the question about the members of the Russian delegation that will travel to the Turkish city and whether it will include Putin, the Russian spokesman did not want to comment.
Putin proposed to open direct negotiations
On Sunday, Putin did not openly reject the ceasefire, but neither did he support it, claiming that Kyiv had violated previous truces, from the energy truce to the Easter truce and the most recent one on the occasion of Victory Day.
Instead, he rejected the European "ultimatums" and proposed opening direct negotiations, although he did not rule out that a real truce agreement "that is supported not only by Russia, but also by the Ukrainian side" could be reached in Istanbul.
"This would be the first step towards a lasting and firm peace, and not the prologue to the continuation of the conflict after rearmament and a new mobilization of the Ukrainian Army," he said.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, stressed on Sunday that "first there must be negotiations on the initial causes (of the conflict) and then we can talk about a truce".
"We have agreed that starting Monday, May 12, a complete and unconditional ceasefire of at least 30 days must begin. We jointly ask Russia for this," Zelensky said Saturday at a joint press conference in Kyiv with the leaders of France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Poland.
In addition to refusing to suspend arms supplies to Kyiv, the Europeans threatened Moscow with "massive sanctions" coordinated between Europe and the United States.
