Russia does not trust Ukrainian peace negotiators, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday, Yeni Safak reports. 

Commenting on the current situation in the Russia-Ukraine peace talks in an interview with Russia's state-run Rossiya 24 TV channel, Zakharova said the principle "trust but verify" no longer applies to the talks because it is required to verify all the time while dealing with Ukrainian negotiators.

"It's no longer 'trust and verify,' it's just 'verify' here because there has been no trust in these people for a long time," the spokeswoman said.

At the same time, she said Russia was prepared for Ukraine to behave inconsistently during the negotiations.

She noted that Kyiv's approach to talks with Russia is designed in the same way that it was for the implementation of the Minsk agreements.

"The classic scheme, which says that the regime is not independent, it is controlled. And secondly, negotiations are used as a distraction," she said.

At least 2,072 civilians have been killed and 2,818 injured in Ukraine so far in the war, according to UN estimates, with the true figure believed to be much higher.

More than 4.9 million Ukrainians have fled to other countries, with over 7 million more internally displaced, said the UN refugee agency.