MOSCOW, Might 11 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday proposed direct talks with Ukraine on Might 15 in Istanbul that he stated ought to be aimed toward bringing a sturdy peace and eliminating the foundation causes of the warfare.
Putin despatched hundreds of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, unleashing a warfare that has left a whole lot of hundreds of troopers lifeless and triggering the gravest confrontation between Russia and the West for the reason that 1962 Cuban Missile Disaster.
He stated Russia was proposing direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul in an try to “eliminate the root causes of the conflict” and “to achieve the restoration of a long-term, lasting peace” moderately than merely a pause for rearmament.
“We are proposing that Kyiv resume direct negotiations without any preconditions,” Putin stated from the Kremlin within the early hours of Sunday. “We offer the Kyiv authorities to resume negotiations already on Thursday, in Istanbul.”
Regardless of private and non-private strain from U.S. President Donald Trump and repeated warnings from European powers, Putin has supplied few concessions in the direction of ending the battle.
Putin stated that he would communicate to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in a while Sunday about facilitating the talks, which he stated may result in a ceasefire.
“Our proposal, as they say, is on the table, the decision is now up to the Ukrainian authorities and their curators, who are guided, it seems, by their personal political ambitions, and not by the interests of their peoples.”
There was no speedy response from Kyiv to the proposal, which got here within the early hours of Sunday morning.
Russia, Putin stated, had proposed a number of ceasefires, together with a moratorium on placing power amenities, an Easter ceasefire and most lately the 72-hour truce through the celebrations marking 80 years since victory in World Battle Two however accused Ukraine of repeatedly violating the ceasefires.
He stated that through the Might ceasefire Ukraine had attacked Russia with 524 aerial drones, 45 sea drones, quite a lot of Western missiles and that Russia had repelled 5 assaults on Russian areas.
Ukraine has accused Russia of repeatedly violating its personal ceasefire, and together with main European powers, demanded on Saturday that Putin comply with an unconditional 30-day ceasefire or face “massive” new sanctions.
Putin dismissed what he stated was the try by some European powers to slap down “ultimatums.”
Peace?
Putin, whose forces have superior over the previous 12 months, has stood agency in his circumstances for ending the warfare.
In June 2024, he stated that Ukraine should formally drop its NATO ambitions and withdraw its troops from everything of the territory of 4 Ukrainian areas claimed by Russia.
Russian officers have additionally proposed that the US acknowledge Russia’s management over about one fifth of Ukraine and demanded that Ukraine stays impartial although Moscow has stated it’s not against Kyiv’s ambitions to hitch the European Union.
Putin particularly talked about the 2022 draft deal which Russia and Ukraine negotiated shortly after the Russian invasion of February 2022.
Beneath that draft, a replica of which Reuters has seen, Ukraine ought to comply with everlasting neutrality in return for worldwide safety ensures from the 5 everlasting members of the U.N. Safety Council: Britain, China, France, Russia and the US.
“It was not Russia that broke off negotiations in 2022. It was Kyiv,” Putin stated. “Russia is ready to negotiate without any preconditions.”
He thanked China, Brazil, African and Center Jap nations and the US for his or her efforts to mediate.
Trump, who says he needs to be remembered as a peacemaker, has repeatedly stated he needs to finish the “bloodbath” of the Ukraine warfare which his administration casts as a proxy warfare between the US and Russia.
Former U.S. President Joe Biden, Western European leaders and Ukraine solid the invasion as an imperial-style land seize and repeatedly vowed to defeat Russian forces.
Putin casts the warfare as a watershed second in Moscow’s relations with the West, which he says humiliated Russia after the Soviet Union fell in 1991 by enlarging NATO and encroaching on what he considers Moscow’s sphere of affect, together with Ukraine.
(Reporting by Marina Bobrova, Dmitry Antonov, Lidia Kelly, Anastasia Lyrchikova and Felix Gentle; enhancing by Man Faulconbridge and Lincoln Feast.)
