Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) meets with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Russia, on the 26th (local time). Moscow | Associated Press
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during a visit to Moscow to discuss the Ukraine crisis and said he was still hopeful of a resolution through negotiations.
According to the AFP news agency, Putin sat across from Guterres with a long table in the Kremlin on the same day. “The military operation is going on (in Ukraine) but we still have hope that we can reach an agreement through the diplomatic track,” Putin said in a televised remarks ahead of the meeting. . We do not refuse,” he said.
Putin said negotiations with Ukraine had broken down due to allegations of massacres of civilians found in the Bucha area outside Kiev (Kyiv), and insisted that what happened in the Bucha had nothing to do with the Russian military. “There was a provocation in the village of Bucha that had nothing to do with the Russian military,” he said. “We know who prepared this provocation and by what means, and we know who did it.”
Russia and Ukraine have negotiated five times in Belarus and Turkey, etc., and it is known that negotiations were conducted over video earlier this month, but no breakthrough has been made to resolve the situation. Ukraine has said that if other countries make international commitments to guarantee Ukraine’s security, it will stop trying to join NATO, will not allow foreign troops to station in Ukraine, and will remain a non-nuclear-neutral country. However, it is the position that pro-Russian forces cannot concede territory, including the Donbas region, where they declared an independent state.
Putin accused the two countries of making significant progress in the fifth round of negotiations held in Turkey last month, but that Ukraine’s position has changed significantly since then. Putin claimed that “they retreated from their original intentions and left the Krum (Crimea), Sevastopol and Donbas Republic issues out of the discussion.”
Guterres supported the dialogue and negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, stressing the importance of improving the humanitarian situation in Ukraine. UN spokesperson Stephan Dujaric said that Putin had reached an agreement in principle between the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to engage in the evacuation of civilians from the Mariupol Azoustal Works. A follow-up discussion on the details will take place between the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Russian Ministry of Defense, Dujaryk said.
Following his visit to Russia, Guterres will visit Kiiu, Ukraine, and meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
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