Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday expressed his assist for resuming peace negotiations with Ukraine, though he expressed his doubts concerning the legitimacy of his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, whose mandate expired on Could 20.
“Peace negotiations have to be resumed and never by means of an ultimatum, however with widespread sense,” Putin mentioned throughout a press convention in Minsk, the Belarusian capital.
Putin known as on Ukraine to return to the negotiating desk, though he warned that the ultimate goal of negotiations have to be “the signing of legally binding paperwork.”
He recalled that Ukraine already signed such a doc on the finish of March 2022 in Istanbul, however withdrew the signature below strain from the West.
“As soon as once more there’s discuss that we should return to negotiations. Allow them to return! However allow them to return not based mostly on what one celebration desires (…), however on the present scenario on the bottom. We’re keen,” he acknowledged. .
Putin requested himself: “Who to barter with? It isn’t a trivial query (…) Russia is conscious that the legitimacy of the present head of state (of Ukraine) has expired.”
“I imagine that one of many goals of the convention that was introduced in Switzerland is for the Western group, the sponsors of the present Kiev regime, to verify the legitimacy of the present or now not present head of state,” he mentioned.
When the time comes, Putin confused that Moscow have to be “utterly positive” that it’s speaking to a “respectable energy.”
Ukraine doesn’t imagine within the provide
For his half, the Overseas Minister of Ukraine, Dmitro Kuleba, attributed this Friday the alleged willingness of the President of Russia to declare a ceasefire with the present demarcation line on the entrance to the concern impressed by the chance that the Peace Summit promoted by Kiev that may happen in Switzerland subsequent month.
“Why are Russian sources abruptly telling the media that Putin is keen to cease the conflict with the present strains on the battlefield? It is easy. Putin is desperately making an attempt to derail the June 15-16 Peace Summit in Switzerland,” Kuleba wrote on his X social community account.
Kuleba assured that “Putin has no intention at this second to cease the aggression towards Ukraine.” In response to the Ukrainian minister, the Russian president fears that the Swiss summit will finish with a message of “unity” from “a world majority” that forces him to “select peace as a substitute of conflict.”
“That is what the Peace Summit aspires to realize. And that’s what it fears,” Kuleba confused.
With the summit in Switzerland, Ukraine seeks to realize the assist of as many leaders as potential around the globe for its so-called Peace Method, a ten-point doc that requires, amongst different issues, the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, the discharge of all prisoners of conflict and the restoration of power and meals safety threatened by the Russian invasion.
“Their atmosphere sends these false indicators of their supposed readiness for a ceasefire although Russian troops proceed to brutally assault Ukraine whereas their missiles and drones fall on Ukrainian cities and communities,” Kuleba added.