The Kremlin affirmed that Moscow is still ready to negotiate with Kiev.
(Baonghean.vn) - Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on December 5 that previous negotiations had been canceled by Kiev.
According to Russia's RT news agency, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told RTVI news channel on December 5 that Moscow is ready to resolve the ongoing conflict with Kiev through diplomatic means at any time. He noted that Russia has never rejected such an option and Kiev itself withdrew from the talks in the spring of 2022.
Russia announced the launch of a military operation in Ukraine in February 2022 aimed at protecting the Russian-speaking population of two republics in Donbass, former Ukrainian territories that declared independence from Kiev after the 2014 Maidan coup, unleashing years of conflict.
Moscow has repeatedly stated its readiness to negotiate with Kiev, provided that the situation on the ground is taken into account. In the fall of 2022, the two republics, along with two other Ukrainian territories, joined Russia after a series of referendums.
Kiev has repeatedly ruled out any talks with Moscow. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky signed a decree last fall banning any talks with the current Kremlin leadership. He has also put forward his own peace plan, which would require the withdrawal of all Russian troops from all territories within Ukraine’s 1991 borders before any talks could begin. Moscow has rejected the idea as unrealistic.
“President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated that achieving our goals in the conflict with Kiev is our top priority. And we want to do it through political and diplomatic means,” Kremlin spokesman Peskov told RTVI on December 5. “We are still ready for negotiations,” he added, referring to the possibility of talks with Ukraine.
The Kremlin spokesman later said that it was Kiev that had derailed the talks with Moscow, which were to be held in the spring of 2022. “They themselves admitted that the talks were being held on the orders of the British… The situation is quite clear,” he told RTVI.
Mr Peskov referred to an earlier interview on the Ukraine 1+1 TV channel with Ukraine’s most senior lawmaker, David Arakhamia. The politician, who leads the Servant of the People party in parliament and led the Ukrainian delegation at the Istanbul talks, admitted that the conflict could have ended in the spring of 2022.
He said in late November that Moscow had essentially offered Ukraine peace in exchange for neutrality and a promise not to join NATO. He also revealed that then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who visited Kiev in early April, told Ukrainian officials not to “sign anything” with the Russians and instead “keep fighting.”