Russia’s lead negotiator in peace talks with Ukraine said Sunday that Russia was willing to resume negotiations but the initiative to continue them was with Kyiv. “For our part, we are ready to continue the dialogue,” Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky said in an interview with Belarusian TV. “Freezing talks was entirely Ukraine’s initiative, Medinsky said, adding that the “ball is completely in their court”. He added that “Russia has never refused talks”. Talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations have been held regularly both in person and via video-link since the Russian military offensive began on February 24. The Ukrainian and Russian foreign ministers met for inconclusive talks in Turkey in March, followed by a meeting of the delegations in Istanbul, which also failed to bring about concrete results. On Tuesday, Kyiv’s lead negotiator Mykhaylo Podolyak said that talks with Moscow were “on hold” after being held regularly in the earlier stages of the conflict but without substantial results. Meanwhile, the Moscow-installed mayor of Ukraine’s southern city of Enerhodar, the site of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, was wounded in an explosion Sunday, a Ukrainian official and Russian news agencies said. Andrey Shevchik was appointed mayor of Enerhodar after Russian troops took control of the city and the nearby Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant as part of Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine that started on February 24. “We have accurate confirmation that during the explosion the self-proclaimed head of the ‘people’s administration’ Shevchik and his bodyguards were injured,” Dmytro Orlov, the elected mayor of Enerhodar, said on Telegram. He added that they were in hospital “with injuries of varying severity” but the circumstances of the case were still being established. Nobody else was injured in the blast, he added.