During his April 12 press conference at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time assessed the progress of talks with Ukraine. He visited the spaceport together with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko. The Russian leader said that the sides reached certain agreements during the talks in Istanbul at the end of March, yet the situation was impacted by the "provocation in Bucha" and the fact that "the Ukrainian side had moved away from its agreements in Istanbul." According to Putin, on April 11, Ukraine changed its proposals yet again but did not specify what the changes were. He asserted that the special military operation will continue with Moscow’s aspiration being the attainment of all previously set goals. Moscow does not reject the negotiations yet sees that the Ukrainian side is not responding to the decisions on the recognition of Crimea, the LPR and DPR which Russia needs, Associate Professor at the Russian State University for the Humanities Alexander Gushchin says. The academic thinks that the talks will continue but in a new format. He stressed that it was very significant that Putin gave high marks to Belarus as a negotiating venue during his visit to Vostochny. In his address, Putin signaled several messages simultaneously, according to Russian International Affairs Council Director General Andrey Kortunov. He demonstrated that he was dissatisfied by the Ukrainian side that moved away from the Istanbul agreements. Yet this time he was not talking about de-Nazification and the "resetting of Ukraine" - the Russian leader returned to stating the need to protect Donbass. Gushchin concurs that the liberation of the territories of the LPR and DPR and conquering the armed forces in eastern Ukraine remain Moscow’s priorities. https://www.vedomosti.ru/politics/articles/2022/04/12/917837-ukraina-otkazalas-dogovorennostei