Citing “two people close to the Kremlin”, the news agency alleged on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had used an unspecified backchannel to tell Washington that he could be ready for talks on Ukrainian security.
According to the report, the Russian president could drop “an insistence on neutral status for Ukraine and even ultimately abandon opposition to eventual NATO membership”. In exchange, Putin is said to have asked the West to accept Russian sovereignty over all former Ukrainian regions that have joined the country in recent years after voting in public referendums.
Asked to comment on the report, Peskov refuted it as “false and absolutely untrue”. The spokesman earlier also told Bloomberg that while Russia is still open to talks on Ukraine, it is “determined to reach our goals”. While Moscow would prefer to achieve its aims by diplomatic means, it will do so by continuing its military operation against Ukraine if this avenue does not result in any progress, he added.
President Putin stated last month that Moscow is still pursuing the “denazification” and “demilitarization” of Ukraine, as well as an arrangement that would guarantee the neighboring country’s neutral status. He has previously said that Kiev’s push to join NATO – the expansion of which Moscow has described as a critical threat – was one of the key reasons for the current conflict.
At the same time, Ukraine has repeatedly announced it is only prepared to accept the withdrawal of Russian troops from all the territory that Kiev claims as its own. In the autumn of 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also signed a decree banning all talks with the current leadership in Moscow.
In the US, which is Kiev’s main backer, President Joe Biden has vowed to follow the principle of “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine”. Russian officials have consistently said all negotiations on the conflict should be conducted with the West, but argue it has shown no appetite for a constructive solution.
Putin said on Friday currently there are a total of 600,000 Russian soldiers in the special operation zone.
“Probably, there are issues that require additional attention, solutions, something always needs to be adjusted, because the combat zone is long, almost 2,000 kilometers [1,200 miles] and there are over 600,000 people in the combat zone,” the president stated during a meeting with students participating in the special military operation.
