Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has ordered officials to prepare for a new round of peace talks with Russia that could start on Wednesday, as critics accused him of trying to assert de facto control over his country’s top anti-corruption agencies.
Mr Zelenskiy on Tuesday appointed Rustem Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defence council, to lead a delegation that he said would also include officials from the foreign ministry, intelligence services and his own office.
Kyiv officials have said their first peace talks with Russia since early June are scheduled to start in Istanbul on Wednesday. The Kremlin has said it hopes talks could resume this week, without confirming a date or location.
“Let’s be honest: the issue of a Ukrainian settlement is so complicated that even reaching agreements on prisoner exchanges or the return of bodies is already a success,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday. “So ... we have no reason to expect any magical breakthroughs – such outcomes are hardly likely in the current situation.”
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Talks in Istanbul on May 16th and June 2nd resulted in the exchange of thousands of prisoners and the remains of dead soldiers, but made no headway on US-led calls for a full ceasefire – which Ukraine supports – and top-level talks on a possible peace deal.
The US has expressed growing impatience with Moscow and last week agreed to send more arms to Ukraine via Nato and threatened to impose “severe” tariffs on Russian trade if the Kremlin failed to seek peace within 50 days.
Russia responded by saying it rejected ultimatums and by reiterating that peace was possible only if Ukraine accepted the permanent occupation of five of its regions and formally agreed never to join Nato – terms that Kyiv says amount to capitulation.
“Ukraine is ready to work as productively as possible for the release of our people from captivity and the return of abducted children, as well as to stop the killings and prepare for a meeting of leaders to achieve the real end of this war,” Mr Zelenskiy said. “Our position is as transparent as possible. Ukraine never wanted this war, and it is Russia that must end the war that it started.”
As he focused publicly on potential peace talks, critics accused Mr Zelenskiy of aiming to crush the independence of the national anti-corruption bureau (Nabu) and specialised anti-corruption prosecutor’s office (Sapo), which are central to western-backed efforts to root out the high-level graft that has plagued Ukraine for decades.
Deputies rushed through a Bill on Tuesday that would dramatically restrict the two agencies’ freedom of operation and effectively subordinate them to Ukraine’s prosecutor general, who is appointed directly by the country’s president.
Opponents of the move urged Mr Zelenskiy not to sign the Bill into law, amid widespread anger among civil society activists over a spate of raids and arrests that they regard as attempts to intimidate and sideline anti-corruption investigators and campaigners.
Nabu director Semen Kryvonos urged Mr Zelenskiy to veto a Bill that he said had been supported by deputies who face anti-corruption investigations, and which “threatened” Ukraine’s bid to join the European Union and Nato.
“The European Union is concerned about Ukraine’s recent actions with regard to ... Nabu and Sapo. These institutions are crucial to Ukraine’s reform agenda and must operate independently to fight corruption and maintain public trust,” said European Commission spokesman Guillaume Mercier.
“The EU provides significant financial assistance to Ukraine, conditional on progress in transparency, judicial reform, and democratic governance. Ukraine’s EU accession will require a strong capacity to combat corruption and to ensure institutional resilience.”
