KYIV: The Ukraine war can only be resolved through “diplomacy”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday amid a deadlock in negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow.

“The end will be through diplomacy,” he told a Ukrainian television channel. The war “will be bloody, there will be fighting but will only definitively end through diplomacy”.

“There are things that can only be reached at the negotiating table,” he said.“ We want everything to return (to as it was before)“ but “Russia does not want that”, he said, without elaborating.

On Tuesday, Kyiv’s lead negotiator Mykhaylo Podolyak said talks with Moscow were “on hold” after taking place regularly in the earlier stages of the conflict but without substantial results.

G7 mulling Russian asset seizures to help rebuild Ukraine

The following day Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Kyiv authorities of not wanting to continue talks to end hostilities.

“Talks are indeed not moving forward and we note the complete lack of will of Ukrainian negotiators to continue this process,” he said.

The last talks took place on April 22, according to Russian news agencies.

After failing to take Kyiv following the February 24 invasion of Ukraine, Russian troops are now concentrating on the east of the country, where fierce clashes are ongoing.