Zelenskyy's chief of staff: Ukraine-US-Russia talks continue despite claims of pause

Kyrylo Budanov, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, has said negotiations involving the United States and Russia are continuing at the technical level despite the current pause in high-level contact.

In response to a question from journalist Anne Applebaum about the suspension of dialogue previously announced by US officials, Budanov insisted that the pause only applies to the highest level of negotiations.

"There is a certain pause in negotiations at the highest level, but at the technical level these negotiations have never stopped. The fact that you've seen prisoner swaps and so on only confirms this.

I don't agree with the assessment that these negotiations have stopped," Budanov said at the Architecture of Security Forum.

Budanov stressed that he shares the view that Russia is reluctant to reach an agreement, but he believes there is a strong possibility that Moscow will be forced to make agreements despite its reluctance.

"Does Russia want peace? I don't think it wants it very much. But will it be prepared to take certain steps in the near future? I think the prospects of that are now higher than ever before," he said.

Budanov also confirmed reports that the possibility of US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visiting Russia and Ukraine, as previously announced by President Zelenskyy, is being explored.

On 22 May, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that peace talks on Ukraine had been suspended, explaining that the US is "not interested in getting involved in an endless cycle of meetings that lead to nothing". Prior to that, he said there had been no "fruitful outcome" in the peace process regarding Ukraine.

However, immediately after Rubio's remarks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected that assessment, saying that he anticipated that the US would propose formats and a timeframe for further peace negotiations.