Head of the President's Office of Ukraine Andriy Yermak says that negotiations with Russia are ongoing in various formats, and President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky is ready for negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"The president [Zelensky] has said many times that he is ready for such a meeting [with Putin]. When and where it will take place, the question is open... As soon as there is confidence that the president of Russia is ready to talk and there will be a subject for conversation, it will take place," Yermak said in an interview with Focus on Friday.

According to him, "the end of the war, the striving for peace should be the main motivation for this meeting." "As the president of Ukraine said in his statement to parliament, in order to solve this main problem for the whole country today, we need to speak directly with Russia and its leader."

Yermak said that negotiations with Russia are ongoing, in particular, within Normandy format (Ukraine, Germany, France, Russia) and in the TCG. "We hope that we will be able to achieve progress in some areas. Ukraine came up with three very important initiatives. First, a return to the ceasefire. Second, the issue of two entry-exit checkpoints is being raised, Schastia and Zolote. Third, it has been long gone exchange, we transferred to the TCG once again the lists of people for release, this is up to 100 people. There is no answer yet. Our representatives in the TCG continue to negotiate," the head of the President's Office said.

He also said that Ukraine is ready to fulfill its obligations, including the Minsk agreements on resolving the situation in eastern Ukraine, but noted that it contains issues that can be interpreted in different ways. "There are controversial issues in the documents, there are some provisions formulated in such a way that the sides interpret them differently. Therefore, Ukraine offers and will offer ways out of this situation, the main thing is that there is a desire on the other side," Yermak said.

As an example of a collision, he cited the OSCE's demands for the holding of elections, which in the event of the fulfillment of the border provision fixed in the Minsk agreements will be impossible to ensure.

"As for Steinmeier's formula, it was really agreed within the Paris summit, and I do not see anything wrong with it... The key point in this formula is that the legitimacy of the elections is confirmed by the OSCE. There is the so-called Copenhagen Document, which establishes the principles of democratic elections. The elections should be completely under the control of the Ukrainian authorities, with the participation of all Ukrainian parties, the media and international observers, and Ukraine's law enforcement agencies must ensure security. There can be no foreign militants, and even less foreign regular troops. of course, at the time of elections, the border should already be controlled by the government of the state that holds the elections and recognize these elections as legitimate," the head of the President's Office said, adding "there are still very many such conflicts a lot."

"Ukraine has repeatedly demonstrated to the whole world that it persistently fulfills all its obligations. We always say that our country is ready to continue to fulfill the Minsk agreements, but there should be a clear plan for this work to de-occupy part of the territory of two regions of Ukraine. But the Russian side too must show a desire to fulfill the Minsk agreements, starting with full compliance with the ceasefire, ending with other agreements of the Paris summit in Normandy format," Yermak said.