On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that progress had been achieved in Moscow’s discussions with Ukraine and that the crisis would stop if the West took steps to meet Moscow’s concerns. Mr. Putin said at a Kremlin meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko that Western sanctions would not impede Russian development and that Russia will emerge stronger as a result.
He went on to say that Ukrainian conversations took place almost every day. “Our negotiators tell me there are some encouraging moves,” Mr. Putin added. “All of this will be discussed later.” In the highest-level talks since the war began, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba met in Turkey on Thursday. There was no breakthrough.
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia has murdered thousands of people, displaced more than 2 million people, and prompted worries of a larger conflict between Russia and the US.
According to US intelligence sources, Russia was taken aback by the strength of Ukrainian resistance and the severity of Western economic sanctions. So yet, Russia has shown no signs of modifying its mind. Mr. Lukashenko informed Putin that they were both from generations of Soviets who had lived through sanctions and that the Soviet Union had progressed well.
Putin said the Soviet was always under sanctions
Putin agreed to fact that the Soviet Union was always under sanctions. The Soviet Union was always under sanctions, but it developed and achieved great things.” The conflict in Ukraine would stop, the Kremlin said on Friday if the West took action in response to Russia’s repeated complaints about the slaughter of civilians in eastern Ukraine and NATO’s eastward expansion.
“We must find a solution to these two issues.” Russia has made specific demands to Ukraine in order to fix these issues, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. When reporters asked Mr. Peskov how the crisis could be resolved, he stated Russia’s position and stated that he believed Ukraine was negotiating Moscow’s demands with the US and European Union countries.
Russian officials avoid using the phrase “invasion” and claim that the Western media has failed to cover the “genocide” of Russian-speaking people in eastern Ukraine. Such concerns have been rejected by the West on several occasions.
Mr. Putin claims that the “special military operation” in Ukraine is necessary to preserve Russian security after the US expanded NATO’s membership to include countries on Russia’s borders and backed pro-Western governments in Kyiv. Ukraine claims to be battling for its survival, while the US and its European and Asian allies have denounced Russia’s invasion. China has urged restraint.