Russian President Vladimir Putin says his country is ready for talks to end the conflict in Ukraine, but that Ukraine is not ready to sit down at the negotiating table.
“It’s not about us, we are ready for negotiations. But the leaders in Kiev have decided not to continue negotiations with Russia,” Putin said in a speech and question-and-answer session for the Valdai Discussion Club, a think tank in Moscow.
That problem is easy to solve, according to the Russian president: “Washington should send a signal to Kiev that it is time to change its position and solve the problem peacefully,” Putin said.
On Tuesday, the US national security spokesman said that no such signal would come from the US. “Mr. Zelensky gets to decide — because it’s his country — what success looks like and when to negotiate,” he said in response to a letter from progressive Democratic MPs asking the president to push for negotiations.
There have been no peace talks between Russia and Ukraine since rounds of negotiations in the early weeks of the conflict went nowhere. Afterwards, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky explicitly ruled out negotiations between himself and Putin.
Putin maintains hostile tone during war speech: ‘The West is playing a dangerous game’
ANALYSIS. Russia is going to drop that ‘dirty bomb’. We know how and where, just not yet when (+)
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