Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Moscow is interested in permanent and stable peace in Ukraine. He stressed, however, that the Russian conditions for the end of the conflict remain unchanged. He responded to the repeated challenge of Kiev to a meeting of leaders to end the end of more than three years of war. According to AFP and DPA reports, TASR reports.
“We need a permanent and stable peace on solid foundations that would satisfy Russia and Ukraine and guarantee the safety of both countries,” Putin noted before journalists.
Russia has long been demanding that Ukraine have actually resembles control of the four regions that Moscow annexed. However, Kiev describes this as an unacceptable requirement.
Ukraine is ready for negotiations
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj on Friday again called for a meeting with Putin, which he said could take place by the end of August. “We understand who makes decisions in Russia and who has to end this war,” he wrote on social networks. According to him, Ukraine is ready for such a meeting “at any time”. At the same time, Zelenskyj called on its Western allies to quickly deliver more weapons and tighten sanctions against Russia and its business partners.
Putin stressed that he supports negotiations with Ukraine, but the expectations of results should not be “exaggerated”. He accused Ukraine for the lack of progress in the interviews of the end of the war. “To achieve a peaceful solution, we need thorough negotiations, not public. It should be done quietly, in silence the negotiating process,” he added.
Russia is massively producing missiles
Direct negotiations between Moscow and Kiev were resumed in May for the first time since 2022. The three subsequent rounds were exchanged prisoners and bodies of the fallen, but there was no fundamental breakthrough that would lead to stopping the fighting, DPA noted.
The Russian President also announced on Friday alongside Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko that Russia has started to mass -make a medium -range ballistic rocket Orešnik, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. Russia used this weapon last year to attack the Ukrainian city of Dnipro and later announced its possible deployment in Belarus.
“Our specialists, Belarusian and Russian, have already chosen a place for its future placement,” said Putin, saying that both countries are likely to agree on this issue by the end of the year.
