Russia has proposed holding the second round of talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on June 2. However, Ukraine wants to see Russia’s proposals for a peace deal before it sends a delegation to Turkey, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Friday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian delegation would be travelling to Istanbul and would be ready for talks with Ukraine on Monday morning.

“At the moment, everyone is focused on the direct Russia-Ukraine negotiations. A list of conditions for a temporary truce is being developed,” Peskov told reporters. He said the details of the memorandum will not be published.

Reuters reported earlier this week that Putin’s conditions for ending the war in Ukraine include a demand that Western leaders pledge in writing to stop enlarging NATO eastwards.

Russia says no response from Ukraine on Istanbul talks

U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said earlier on Friday that Russia’s concern over the eastward enlargement of NATO was fair and the United States did not want to see Ukraine in the U.S.-led military alliance.

Commenting on Kellogg’s statement, Peskov said that Putin has been consistently conveying Russia’s position on the inadmissibility of NATO’s eastward expansion.

“We are pleased that these explanations by the president are understood, including in Washington. And, of course, this is quite appealing to us in terms of the mediating role that Washington continues to play,” Peskov said.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops.

The PD lawmakers said in a statement this was the only way out of the crisis which has deprived the government of an effective parliamentary majority, as Conte continues to struggle to find unaligned and centrist lawmakers to join his ranks.

Conte's resignation is the "only way" to convince these wavering parliamentarians to respond to his call, the PD statement said.

This week, the upper house Senate will votes on an annual report on the justice system and Conte risks a defeat which could scupper the government.

"As things stand, Conte does not have enough support to approve the justice report," The PD lawmakers said.

The money will fund additional grants to businesses forced to close due to coronavirus restrictions and extend an existing debt moratorium for small and medium-sized companies, the state auditor at the Treasury, Biagio Mazzotta, added.

The extra borrowing will probably push this year's fiscal gap above 10% of gross domestic product (GDP), up from 9.5% in 2020 when the economy shrank by 8.9%, a government source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The last time Italy registered a double-digit deficit was in the early 1990s.

"The next stimulus package will certainly be substantial, I think it will be worth as much as the first one approved this year," Mazzotta said at a conference on the COVID crisis.

Last month the government of national unity led by former European Central Bank (ECB) chief Mario Draghi detailed some 32 billion euros of expansionary measures.

Rome's official estimate, made by the previous government in January, envisages a deficit-to-GDP ratio of 8.8% this year. That was premised on an economic growth forecast of 6%, which officials say will have to be revised down to a figure between 4% and 5%.

The extra borrowing will also increase Rome's huge public debt, equal to 155.6% at the end of last year and proportionally the second highest in the euro zone after Greece.

The new deficit and debt targets, along with multi-year GDP growth forecasts, will be issued in the Treasury's Economic and Financial Document, which is expected to be approved next week.

This forms the preliminary framework for the 2022 budget and must be sent to the European Commission for approval.