The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said on Thursday that future negotiations to resolve the war in Ukraine should focus on security guarantees for both countries and on a general security framework across Europe.
Putin, interviewed by Russian television a day after meeting with the U.S. presidential envoy, Steve Witkoff, confirmed that Russia is ready to resume negotiations with Ukraine, mediated by the United States, next month.
He reaffirmed the Kremlin’s long-standing policy that Russia never wanted to start a war, but faced hostile reactions from Ukraine on key issues that concern Moscow.
Negotiations on several issues could lead to a positive outcome, he said, but Russia remained committed to a solution that would end the conflict, rather than a short‑lived ceasefire.
“The objective of these negotiations will be to guarantee the security of Ukraine and Russia after the conclusion of peace agreements, in their definitive form, and not as a result of a temporary ceasefire for a short period of time. We are ready to resume these contacts in order to achieve this objective,” Putin said.
The Russian president said that Witkoff also emphasized that the discussions should extend to “the architecture of European security as a whole. And I agree with that as well. Well, let’s see how things develop in the coming days.”
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who met with Witkoff in Norway on Tuesday, said that Ukraine is ready for negotiations that are likely to take place at the beginning of next month. He stated that Ukraine supports “any ceasefire proposals, end of the war, an energy ceasefire, as well as humanitarian initiatives.”
U.S.-led efforts to promote the negotiations stalled in February with the start of the conflict between the United States and Israel on one side and Iran on the other.
Many of the issues related to the war in Ukraine focus on territory, with Russia demanding that Ukraine cede the entire Donbas region in the east of the country. Kyiv rejects any idea of giving up the territories it currently controls.
In his remarks, Putin said that any discussion about territories in eastern Ukraine would have to take into consideration what he says is the fact that the region is “historically Russian land.”
And the residents of the region, he said, voted in favor of becoming part of Russia in referendums held seven months after Moscow had begun its invasion.
“First, my position on this matter is that this is not their territory. It is the historic territory of Russia,” he said.
