Russia on Sunday denied a report that Ukraine's attack on the Kursk region had derailed indirect talks with kyiv on halting attacks on energy and electricity targets, saying there had been no talks with kyiv on civilian infrastructure facilities.
The Washington Post Ukraine and Russia are expected to send delegations to Qatar this month to negotiate a landmark deal to halt attacks on energy and power infrastructure on both sides of the war, it was reported on Saturday.
The Post He said the deal would have amounted to a partial ceasefire but talks were derailed by Ukraine's attack on sovereign Russian territory.
“Nobody broke anything because there was nothing to break,” Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russia's Foreign Ministry, said of the Post report.
“There have been no direct or indirect negotiations between Russia and the kyiv regime on the security of critical civilian infrastructure facilities.” The Ukrainian government did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The Post reported that Ukraine's presidential office said the summit in Doha had been postponed due to the situation in the Middle East and would be held in a video conference format on August 22.
Both Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of attacking civilian infrastructure during the war, but both countries deny this.
Zakharova then quoted President Vladimir Putin, who on August 12 questioned what talks could take place with Ukraine after its ground attack on Russia and what he said were attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure.
“There is nothing to talk about with people who do such things,” Zakharova said.
Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022 in what it calls a “special military operation” and now controls about 18 percent of the country. Ukraine’s cross-border attack in the Kursk region on August 6 was the first military incursion into Russian territory since World War II.
