Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that future talks on a settlement of the war in Ukraine should focus on security guarantees for both countries and an overall framework for security throughout Europe.
– Putin, interviewed on Russian television a day after meeting US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, confirmed that Russia was ready to resume US-mediated talks with Ukraine next month.
– He restated longstanding Kremlin policy that Russia never wanted to launch a war, but had run into hostile reactions from Ukraine on key issues of concern to Moscow.
– Talks on a variety of matters could lead to a positive outcome, he said, but Russia remained intent on a solution ending the conflict rather than a short-lived ceasefire.
– “The goal of these talks will be to ensure the security of Ukraine and Russia after reaching peace agreements, in their final form, not as a result of a temporary ceasefire for some short period of time. We are ready to resume these contacts to achieve this goal,” Putin said.
– The Russian president said Witkoff also stressed that discussions had to extend to “the architecture of European security as a whole. And I agree with that too. Well, let’s see how things develop in the coming days.”
– Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who met Witkoff in Norway on Tuesday, said Ukraine was ready for talks likely to take place by early next month. Ukraine, he said, supported “any proposals for a ceasefire, an end to the war, an energy ceasefire as well as humanitarian initiatives”.
– Efforts headed by the United States to pursue talks stalled in February with the outbreak of the US-Israeli conflict with Iran.
– Many of the Ukraine war issues focus on territory, with Russia demanding Ukraine cede all of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. Kyiv rejects any notion of giving up land it currently holds.
– In his comments, Putin said any discussion on territory in eastern Ukraine had to consider what he said was the fact that the area was “historically Russian land”.
– And residents there, he said, had voted to be a part of Russia in referendums staged seven months after Moscow launched its invasion.
– “Firstly, my attitude on this matter is that this is not their territory. It’s the territory of historical Russia,” he said.