Kyiv: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky seemingly shut the door on the prospect of having any peace talks with Vladimir Putin but not with Russia under a different leadership.

The leader formally announces negotiations with the Kremlin autocrat to be “impossible.” The decree formalized comments made by Zelensky on Friday after Putin proclaimed four partially occupied regions of Ukraine to be a part of Russia “forever,” in what Kyiv and the West dismissed as an illegitimate farce.“He does not know what dignity and honesty are. Therefore, we are ready for a dialog with Russia, but with another president of Russia,” Zelensky said on Friday.

Responding to Zelensky’s decree The Kremlin said that Russia will not end its “special military operation” if Kyiv rules out talks, adding that it “takes two sides to negotiate”.

“We will either wait for the current president to change his position or wait for the next president to change his position in the interests of the Ukrainian people,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.