by Guy Faulconbridge
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia is ready to negotiate with all parties involved in the war in Ukraine, but Kyiv and its Western backers have refused to engage in talks, President Vladimir Putin said in an interview broadcast on Sunday.
Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine sparked Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II and the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.
So far, the end of the war is not in sight.
The Kremlin maintains that it will fight until all its objectives are achieved, while Kyiv says the fighting will continue as long as there is a Russian soldier left on its territory, including in Crimea, annexed in 2014 by the Russia.
“We are ready to negotiate acceptable solutions with all concerned, but it depends on them – it’s not us who refuse to negotiate, it’s them,” Vladimir Putin told Russia 1 state television. .
CIA Director William Burns said in an interview published this month that while most conflicts end in negotiations, the US intelligence agency believes Russia is not yet ready for negotiations. real talks to end the war.
An adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelensky, said Vladimir Putin needed to come to terms with reality and recognize that it was Russia that did not want negotiations.
“Russia and Russia alone attacked Ukraine and kills citizens,” Mykhaïlo Podolyak said on Twitter. “Russia does not want negotiations, but tries to avoid responsibility.”
“NO OTHER CHOICE”
Russian attacks on power stations have left millions without electricity and according to Volodimir Zelensky, Moscow could step up its offensives on Ukraine during the last days of the year.
“Russia has lost everything it could this year (…) I know that the darkness will not prevent us from leading the occupiers to new defeats. But we must be ready for all scenarios”, a- he said in an evening video address.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff said there was still a threat of airstrikes and missiles on critical infrastructure in the country.
Russian troops shelled dozens of towns and positions along the frontline, he said in a Facebook post.
Regarding Saturday’s strike on the southern city of Kherson, which authorities said killed at least 10 people, Volodimir Zelensky said: “We will find all the Russian murderers”.
For his part, the Russian president believes that Russia is going in the “right direction” in Ukraine because the West, under the influence of the United States, was trying to divide the country.
“I believe that we are moving in the right direction, we are defending our national interests, the interests of our citizens, of our people. And we have no choice but to protect our citizens,” Vladimir Putin said.
Washington denies wanting the collapse of Russia.
Asked if the geopolitical conflict with the West was approaching a dangerous zone, Vladimir Putin replied: “I don’t think it is that dangerous”.
The Russian president said the West sparked the conflict in Ukraine in 2014 by overthrowing a pro-Russian president during the Maidan revolution protests.
Soon after this revolution, Russia annexed Crimea and Russian-backed separatist forces began fighting Ukrainian forces in the east of the country.
“In fact, what is fundamental here is the policy of our geopolitical adversaries which aims to divide Russia, historical Russia,” Vladimir Putin said.
Vladimir Putin presents what he calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine as a turning point where Moscow stood up to a Western bloc which he says has sought to destroy Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Ukraine and the West, for their part, believe that nothing can justify what they consider to be a war of occupation of an imperial nature by the Russian president, which has sown suffering and death in Ukraine.
According to Vladimir Putin, the vast majority of the people support his desire to defend “the unity of Russia”.
(Report Guy Faulconbridge, with the contribution of Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv, French version Jean-Michel Bélot and Kate Entringer)