What Kyiv said it would take to resume peace talks
On 6 May 2022, Ukraine's president set out conditions for continuing negotiations with Russia, as diplomacy over sanctions and support continued around him.
What would it take for Ukraine to keep talking to Russia? On 6 May 2022, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave an answer: Kyiv was open to continuing peace talks, provided Russia guaranteed the restoration of preinvasion borders, returned Ukrainians who had been forcefully evacuated to Russia, and withdrew its troops from the country.
Moscow's signals before 6 May
The conditions came after days of contrasting signals. On 3 May 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin told French President Emmanuel Macron that Russia was ready to continue peace negotiations with Ukraine, amid fears that talks between the two countries had stalled. A few days earlier, on 30 April, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had said that sanctions must be lifted as part of any negotiated settlement.
On 3 May, Putin also signed a decree allowing the Russian government to terminate business and exports with entities and people it deemed "unfriendly".
Sanctions and Western support
Sanctions were a running theme in the days before 6 May. On 1 May, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Germany might lift sanctions against Russia if it completely withdrew its troops from Ukraine. The same day, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told the EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, that the next EU sanctions package had to include an oil embargo. Otherwise, he said, the West would be supporting Ukraine with one hand while financing the Russian military machine with the other.
Also on 1 May, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Kyiv and met Ukrainian diplomats. Ukraine's ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, called the visit symbolic and said Kyiv expected Congress to pass a supplementary funding bill worth 33 billion dollars to support Ukraine over the coming months. Adam Schiff, chair of the US House Intelligence Committee, said a visit by President Joe Biden to Ukraine was only a matter of time.
Tensions beyond the front line
On 2 May, Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, accused Hungary of having had advance knowledge of the Russian invasion. He said Hungary had been warned by Putin and had plans to annex parts of western Ukraine.
Fighting continued in the east. On 1 May, Russian artillery fire near Izium in the Kharkiv region killed three people and wounded eight, according to regional military administration head Oleh Synehubov. He said Russian forces were trying to advance towards Udy, Prudianka and Staryi Saltiv.
Against that backdrop, Zelenskyy's statement on 6 May 2022 set out Kyiv's terms plainly: talks could go on, but only with border restoration, the return of those taken to Russia and a Russian troop withdrawal.
