RUSSIA made an offer to Ukraine on Wednesday for a second meeting on June 2 in Istanbul towards reaching a ceasefire deal in the fighting that has raged since February 2022.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said: “Our delegation, headed by Presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, is ready to present this memorandum to the Ukrainian delegation and provide the necessary explanations during the second round of direct talks in Istanbul next Monday, on June 2."

Mr Lavrov said: “As we agreed, the Russian side promptly developed a relevant memorandum, outlining our position on all aspects of reliably overcoming the root causes of the crisis."

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Russia and Ukraine agreed that each side would exchange relevant documents directly and discuss them at the next round.

But United States Special Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg said earlier that the US administration had received a list of conditions for resolving the conflict with Russia from Kiev.

Ms Zakharova insisted that Russia was unaware of any transfer by Ukraine to the United States of any proposals to end the fighting.

She said: “We don’t know what the Ukrainian side handed over or to whom.”

At the May 16 meeting “we agreed that each side, Russia and Ukraine, would prepare their own vision of the settlement and ceasefire, after which they would exchange relevant documents directly and discuss them at the next round.”

“We had no agreements on mediation by the US or other countries in the exchange of initiatives,” Ms Zakharova said.

The Istanbul talks between Russia and Ukraine were the first since 2022.

Moscow and Kiev agreed to exchange prisoners of war under a “1,000 for 1,000” formula, present their detailed vision of a possible future ceasefire and continue the negotiations.

Although the US is supporting talks to bring about a ceasefire, the Ukrainians continue to tout for military support from its European allies.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pledged on Wednesday to help Ukraine develop its own long-range missile systems that would be free of any Western-imposed limitations on their use and targets.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the chancellor announced that Germany “will strive to equip the Ukrainian army with all the capabilities that truly enable it to successfully defend the country,” including upgraded domestic missile production.

Chancellor Merz said: “Ukraine will be able to fully defend itself, including against military targets outside its own territory” with its own missiles.