Kyiv is ruling out negotiations and a meeting between Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the present.
"In short, the negotiation process itself and a face-to-face meeting between the presidents do not make sense at the moment," the external adviser to Ukraine's presidential office, Mykhailo Podolyak, said according to Ukrainian media.
He gave three reasons why talks would be pointless at this stage, starting with that Russia would try to hold on to and legitimize its territorial gains.
Secondly, maintaining the status quo would only serve to give Moscow breathing space to allow it to continue its attacks along the new lines of battle.
And thirdly, Russia must be held accountable for the crimes committed on Ukrainian territory. Negotiations would therefore only be possible once the Russian troops had withdrawn from Ukrainian territory, he said.
At that point, the amount of reparations and the surrender of war criminals could be negotiated, Podolyak said.
