Kazakhstan’s president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev told Russia’s Vladimir Putin Saturday that the Ukraine war should end, calling for the conflict to be “frozen,” in a rare such face-to-face comment to the Russian leader.
– Kazakhstan is an ally of Russia but has never expressed support for Moscow’s Ukraine offensive, which has rattled the Kremlin’s partners in Central Asia.
– “How to get out of this situation? Nobody knows, because there are the positions of both sides. But, on the other hand, there is such a moment and possibility to freeze all this,” Tokayev told Putin at a Russian Kazakh summit in Siberia’s Omsk.
– He added: “It is a shame; young people are dying… All this has to be stopped.”
– “I chose to express my modest opinion because people knew that I planned to be in Omsk,” he added, sitting next to Putin.
– Tokayev told Putin – who launched Moscow’s offensive in 2022 – that the roots of the Russia-Ukraine war “are not completely understandable for many, including for us.”
– He said that while the origins of the Armenia-Azerbaijan wars were “clear” but “here it is very difficult to understand.”
– Tokayev suggested going back to 2022 Istanbul agreements and “then move forward to long-awaited peace.”
– Putin responded by saying he will inform Tokayev on the war during their meeting.
– Diplomatic talks to end more than four years of war have stalled and Putin has repeatedly said Moscow intends to seize the rest of east Ukraine by force.