Russia is willing to enter talks with Ukraine, as long as they reflect “realities on the ground,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with state media.
“Are we ready for negotiations? Yes, we are,” the Russian leader said in the interview, which was broadcast on March 13.
“But negotiations should not be based on wishful thinking ... but on realities on the ground.”
Russia invaded Ukraine two years ago with the stated aim of protecting Russian speakers in the country’s east and halting the further expansion of NATO. Then, in late 2022, Moscow effectively annexed four regions of southern and eastern Ukraine, which it now views as Russian Federation territory.
Kyiv and its Western allies portray the invasion, which Moscow calls a “special military operation,” as an unprovoked land grab.
Last year, a months-long Ukrainian counteroffensive failed to recover lost territory. Since then, Russian forces have gone on the offensive, registering gains, especially in the eastern Donbas region.
When pressed on the issue of possible talks with Kyiv, Mr. Putin voiced reticence.
“We’ve never given up on the idea of the negotiations,” he said.
Mr. Putin recalled that Russian and Ukrainian negotiators had hammered out a draft peace agreement during talks held in Istanbul in early 2022.
He then repeated claims that the draft had been scrapped after Boris Johnson, then serving as UK prime minister, “talked them [the Ukrainians] out of finally signing—and ultimately observing—the treaty.”
After that, Mr. Putin asserted, Kyiv and its Western allies “began talking about the need to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia.”
Mr. Johnson has vehemently denied the Russian claims, calling them “total nonsense” and “Russian propaganda.”
Speaking to the British press in January, Mr. Johnson said he had merely voiced his “concerns” regarding the draft treaty to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“No peace proposals or peace agreement were possible in February or March 2022,” Mr. Johnson told the UK daily newspaper The Times.
“Russia entered Ukraine solely for the sake of seizing territories, killing citizens, and overthrowing a democratic government.”
Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed his country’s readiness to host a fresh round of Russia–Ukraine peace talks.
“We’re doing our best to contribute to ending the war on the basis of talks,” he said at a joint press conference with Mr. Zelenskyy, who visited Istanbul on March 8.
“We’re ready to host a peace summit that would also be attended by Russia.”
NATO member Turkey has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but has nevertheless maintained good relations with both sides of the conflict.
Mr. Zelenskyy has called for holding a spring summit in Switzerland—without Russia—to discuss Ukrainian peace proposals with Kyiv’s allies.
“We don’t see how you can invite people who block, destroy, and kill everything,” the Ukrainian leader said last week, referring to Russia.
“We want to get a result—a just peace.”
The Kremlin described the notion of pursuing peace plans without Russian participation as “frivolous and even laughable.”
In late 2022, Mr. Zelenskyy signed a decree effectively banning Ukrainian officials from negotiating with Russia as long as Mr. Putin remains in power.
This weekend, Russia will hold presidential elections in which Mr. Putin, who has led the country since 1999, is widely expected to win another six years in office.
Putin: Promises ‘Not Enough’
In his recent interview, Mr. Putin lamented what he portrayed as a series of broken promises by Western leaders.“Many times we were promised things, like the non-expansion of NATO to the east,” he said. “But the next thing we knew, they [NATO] were sitting on our borders.”
Last year, Finland—which shares an 800-mile border with Russia—became the Western alliance’s 31st member.
At the time, Moscow decried the move as a “historic mistake” that would only increase the potential for conflict and further enflame geopolitical tensions.
Mr. Putin also accused Western leaders of double-dealing concerning the conflict in Ukraine, which—from a Russian perspective—began in 2014.
“We were promised that the domestic conflict in Ukraine would be resolved through political means and that the Minsk agreements would be honored,” he said. “Then, they [Western leaders] publicly said they would not observe the agreements and were only buying time to arm the Kyiv regime.”
Brokered by France and Germany, the Minsk Protocol was signed in 2014 with the aim of reaching a ceasefire between Ukraine and pro-Russian separatists in the country’s east.
But in late 2022, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel acknowledged that the protocol had been merely intended to “give Kyiv time” to arm itself before an anticipated clash with Russia.
According to Mr. Putin, Russia is ready to end its two-year-old conflict with Ukraine—and its allies—“by peaceful means.”
“But promises aren’t enough anymore,” he said.
“[Negotiations] must not be a pause to allow the enemy to rearm, but a serious conversation involving security guarantees for Russia.”
