German Chancellor: Time to discuss ending the conflict in Ukraine

According to RIA Novosti, in an interview with ZDF Television on September 8, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, It is time to discuss how to speed up the end of the armed conflict in Ukraine.

“I think now is the time to discuss how to move from the current state of war to peace. This process needs to be faster than is possible at the moment,” the German Chancellor said.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz also reiterated that Western countries and Ukraine are planning to hold another “peace conference”, and he, together with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, would like to see Russia’s presence among the participants of this event.

MoscowKiev has repeatedly expressed its readiness for negotiations, but it has not yet lifted the ban on negotiations at the legislative level.

On September 5, speaking at the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum and commenting on the possibility of negotiations with Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow has never rejected a peaceful solution to the conflict. However, it must be based on the agreed and actually preliminarily signed documents in Istanbul (Türkiye), and not on some temporary needs.

In June 2024, Russian President Putin put forward initiatives for a peaceful settlement of the conflict in Ukraine: Moscow will immediately cease fire and declare its readiness for negotiations, after Ukrainian troops withdraw from the territory of the newly annexed regions to Russia. In addition, Kiev must declare its abandonment of NATO membership and demilitarization, as well as accept neutral, non-aligned and nuclear-free status.