Low-level ceasefire talks to resume next week, Finland says
Technical-level ceasefire negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are expected to continue next week at the Vatican, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said on May 21.
Stubb maintained that the United States has not abandoned its role as a mediator in settling Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“There are now more mediators,” he noted.
“Earlier, only the United States played that role. Now Europe is also participating.”
Earlier on May 21, Pope Leo XIV said he was prepared to host the next round of Ukraine-Russia talks at the Vatican following a conversation with Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni.
On May 16, Pope Leo XIV had proposed that Ukraine and Russia hold peace negotiations at the Vatican after Russian dictator Vladimir Putin refused to fly to Istanbul to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The same day, Ukrainian and Russian delegations met for the first time in more than three years, sitting down for talks brokered by Turkey. Ukraine’s Defense Minister and head of its delegation, Rustem Umerov, said that the key topics were a 30-day ceasefire and POW exchanges.
Turkey’s foreign minister later said the delegations agreed on a follow-up meeting and that the ceasefire conditions would be exchanged in writing.
Several media outlets reported that during the talks Russia demanded the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya oblasts. Moscow’s delegation allegedly threatened to seize Ukraine’s Kharkiv and Sumy oblasts and stated that “the Russian Federation is prepared to fight forever.”
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