OMSK, July 25. /TASS/. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said at a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that the conflict in Ukraine should be frozen, and the sides should return to the Istanbul formula.

"Maybe it is time to freeze this conflict and return to Istanbul formula 2.0, because significant results have been achieved there," the Kazakh leader said during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Omsk.

In his words, the conflict "[the conflict] needs to be stopped, because what is happening now, is, in my view, beneficial for both Russia’s adversaries and Ukraine’s adversaries."

Tokayev said he had turned down an initiative to mediate the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

"Despite all proposals and calls, I strongly refuse to be a mediator, because I know that Russia is a great country, and the people of Russia are great. So, they can deal with the matters at hand on their own," he added.