Putin offers direct talks with Kyiv in Istanbul to end the Russian-Ukraine war

Moscow, May 11 (Socialnews.xyz) Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed on Sunday to have direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on May 15, a few hours after kyiv and European leaders called for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire to start on Monday.

Putin did not explicitly tackle this call in his declaration, delivered after 1 am to the Kremlin, describing rather the counter-proposition for the cool negotiations of Russia-Ukraine.

“We propose to the kyiv authorities to take up the talks they broke in 2022 and, I underline, without any prerequisite,” said Putin.

The leaders of Ukraine, Great Britain, France, Germany and Poland had in kyiv on Saturday threatened in Moscow new sanctions and military support in Ukraine if Russia did not agree with the proposal.

Russian and Ukrainian negotiators had direct talks in Istanbul during the first weeks of the conflict, but have not agreed to stop the fighting, which has been raging since.

“We propose to start (negotiations) without delay on Thursday, May 15 in Istanbul,” said Putin, adding that he would speak to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan soon to ask for his help to facilitate talks.

Putin said he was “attached to serious negotiations with Ukraine” and that he wanted talks “to eliminate the profound causes of the conflict and establish lasting peace”.

Russia's references to the “deep causes” of the conflict generally refer to alleged grievances with kyiv and the West that Moscow presented as justification to launch the war in February 2022.

They include commitments to “Dé-Dazify” Ukraine, to protect the Russians in the east of the country, to repel the expansion of NATO and to stop the geopolitical drift towards the west of Ukraine.

Kyiv and the West all rejected them, saying that Russia’s offensive is nothing more than a seizure of imperial style lands.

Tens of thousands have been killed since Russia launched war, with millions of people forced to flee their homes.

Putin did not directly address this last proposal to cease-fire in remarks on Saturday, even if the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, told CNN earlier that Moscow will have to consider him.

The three-day unilateral ceasefire of Russia, declared for the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany expired on Saturday, and Ukraine said that the Russian forces violated it several times.

“We do not exclude that during these talks, we will be able to suit ourselves from a new ceasefire,” said Putin.

He also accused the Western donors of Ukraine of wanting to “continue the war with Russia” and without mentioning the specific proposal of Ukraine-European for a 30-day cease-fire criticized European “ultimatums” and “anti-Russian rhetoric”.

Source: IANS

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