Limited Talks Between Russia and Ukraine in Qatar, Reports Suggest
According to Bloomberg, citing Russian sources, Russia and Ukraine have been holding “limited talks” in Qatar, with a focus on preventing nuclear threats in the midst of the ongoing conflict between the two neighbors. Ukrainian sources told the news agency that the only talks between the two countries are related to the exchange of prisoners.
On Wednesday, Moscow and Kyiv confirmed the latest prisoner exchange, involving 25 soldiers from both sides.
Bloomberg reported that the Kremlin did not respond to a request for a statement.
In August 2024, the Washington Post reported that Russia and Ukraine had held talks on a possible moratorium on attacks on energy infrastructure, allegedly mediated by Qatar in the summer of the same year. The talks were reportedly derailed by Ukraine’s incursion into the Russian border region of Kursk in early August, according to the US news organization.
Moscow denied the report, saying that “no one had brought anything to a halt.” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed the information as “rumors.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman, Maria Sacharova, said at the time that the two sides had not discussed “security arrangements” for critical infrastructure. According to Sacharova, Russia and Ukraine have not held talks since the spring of 2022, when the peace talks failed, which Russia attributed to Western interference.
In November 2024, the Qatari Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, Madschid bin Mohammed al-Ansari, told journalists that the country’s mediation efforts in the Ukraine conflict go beyond humanitarian efforts to help children affected by the conflict and reunite them with their families.
Al-Ansari said that Qatar has always pursued a policy aimed at achieving peace, and the country supports all efforts towards a peaceful resolution of the crisis.
Kyiv has rejected direct talks with Moscow since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy banned direct talks in the fall of 2022. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrij Sybiha confirmed in an interview with the European Prawda, published on Wednesday, that the moratorium remains in place. He also said that Kyiv will wait for further contacts with the US before taking any steps.
Moscow has repeatedly stated that it is ready for peace talks, with no preconditions other than those agreed upon in Istanbul in 2022, which included Ukraine’s acceptance of a neutral status and limitations on the use of foreign weapons on Ukrainian territory.