Her attack Ukrainian at Russia empowers Kiev to push for peace talks, possibly using a framework that could proceed even if the Kremlin refuses to send its diplomats to one-on-one meetings.

The peace deal model increasingly discussed in Kiev is inspired by the July 2022 deal that allowed Ukraine to resume grain exports from the Black Sea. Under this diplomatic scheme, Russia and Ukraine worked on separate agreements, overseen by the United Nations and Turkey as mediators, without a direct Moscow-Kiev agreement.

In Kiev, there is a belief that the advance of his troops across the border into Russian territory Kursk has strengthened Ukraine’s negotiating position.

“In the Kursk region, we can clearly see how the military tool is objectively used to persuade [η Ρωσία] to enter a fair negotiation process,” said adviser to the Ukrainian president Mykhailo Podoliak late last week.

However, Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be in no mood for talks.

“What kind of negotiations can we talk about with people who indiscriminately attack the civilian population and urban infrastructure or try to create threats to nuclear power facilities? What can we discuss with them?’ said Putin without a trace of irony, – comments Politico – given Russia’s history of leveling Ukrainian cities, killing civilians and resorting to blackmail over the Russian-held Zaporizhia power plant.

The Black Sea model will bridge that impasse, two senior Ukrainian officials told Politico. “This is the plan we are aiming for,” said an official close to the Ukrainian president’s office, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The basis for what Ukraine wants is a 10-point plan drawn up by Zelensky in 2022, which covers a range of issues including food and energy security, restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity and withdrawing Russian troops.

In fact, Zelensky’s chief of staff and foreign policy official Andrei Yermak told European Pravda that 10 working groups – including ambassadors and experts – are being formed to draw up an action plan and timetables.

However, Kyiv still has a way to go. He must work on a joint peace plan with countries that agreed to help Ukraine implement three points of a first peace formula – nuclear and energy security, food security and prisoner return – agreed during the first peace summit in Switzerland in June.

Zelensky wants a joint peace proposal to emerge from the meetings initiated by Ukraine during the June summit. Russia-friendly countries involved in the implementation of the peace plan are supposed to present their proposals to Moscow during a second peace summit that Kiev wants to hold by the end of this year.

But Russia has already said it will not come to that summit and has called Ukraine’s peace formula “totally unacceptable” to the Kremlin.

So the Ukrainians decided that Moscow needed some encouragement, saying that raids on Russia would stop when a peace deal was secured.

“The sooner Russia agrees, the sooner the incursions of Ukrainian defense forces into Russian territory will stop,” said Heorhii Tykhyi, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.

Turkey has made no secret of its desire to act as an intermediary again to reach a peace deal. “Turkey, as always, is ready to facilitate the process,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in June. “We will not hesitate to make further efforts.”

POLITICO reached out to the Turkish Foreign Ministry for further comment, but did not receive a response.