On May 21, Russian government spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that work on a memorandum for a potential peace agreement with Ukraine was making progress, but that the Kremlin will keep the content secret for now, The Moscow Times has reported. Also on May 21, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia was not interested in a ceasefire to discuss a peace agreement, because Moscow wants a proper peace deal that addresses the "root causes" of the war. The same day, the director of the legal department of the Russian Foreign Ministry said that neither Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky nor the head of the Ukrainian parliament is "legitimate" to sign an eventual memorandum with Russia.