Putin Says Russia Ready for Next Round of Peace Talks with Ukraine

Russia is ready for the third round of negotiations with Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in Minsk.

"In general, we are ready for this. We need to agree on a place and time," Putin said adding that that the heads of the delegations stay in tough and "constantly call each other."

In the third round of negotiations Russia and Ukraine will discuss draft memorandums on the settlement of the conflict, Putin also said.

Russia To Deliver 3,000 More Bodies to Ukraine

Russia is ready to hand over another 3,000 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers to Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin told journalists in Minsk.

"We have already delivered over 6,000 bodies, and are ready to deliver another 3,000," he said.

The humanitarian component of the negotiation process is important, as it creates conditions for discussing the essence of the problem, Putin noted. According to him, the parties agreed to continue further contacts after the exchanges. The delegations will determine the specific date; they will discuss the memorandums they exchanged on June 2.

Russian and Ukrainian Memoranda Completely Different

The memoranda of Russia and Ukraine are directly opposed to each other, but negotiations serve to find a solution, Russian President Vladimir Putin also said answering journalists' questions in Minsk.

"These are two absolutely opposite memoranda, but negotiations are organized and conducted in order to find solutions," Putin said, adding that he sees "nothing surprising" in the fact that the memoranda differ greatly.

The Russian and Ukrainian delegations have already held two meetings on conflict resolution. Both were held in Istanbul: the first one on May 16, and the second one on June 2. At the latter, each side presented their own version of the memorandum with proposals for a ceasefire.