Russia has said that Kiev’s idea to put peace deal terms up for a referendum will only hurt the ongoing talks. Moscow launched a military campaign against Ukraine late last month.
“We’re convinced that putting [the terms] before the public at this moment can only undermine the negotiations that are already going a lot slower and are less substantial than we want them to be,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested earlier that peace terms of “historical” importance may be the subject of a referendum. “The people will have to respond to certain … compromises,” he told reporters on Monday, adding that the details were still dependent on talks with Moscow.
The Russians and Ukrainians held several rounds of talks in Belarus, later switching to discussions via video link.