Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday (29) that the risk of ending talks with the Russian government to stop the occupation of Ukrainian territory is increasingly “high”.

“The risks of completely stopping any dialogue with the Russians are very high,” the Ukrainian leader told Polish media, Ukrainska Pravda reports.

According to Zelensky, the negotiation process with Moscow representatives is “too slow”.

Earlier this week, the Ukrainian president had already said that his government would halt negotiations with the Russian administration if Ukrainians in the besieged city of Mariupol were killed by Russian forces and Russia held “referendums” in the occupied territories.

But Russian Foreign Minister Serghei Lavrov assured Moscow that he would continue peace talks with the Ukrainians, but reminded that “goodwill has its limits” and accused Kiev of appearing willing to talk.