Everyone wants quick end to Ukraine conflict – Putin
All BRICS countries are determined for the Ukraine conflict to be resolved peacefully and as quickly as possible, Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated.
Putin made the remarks during a press conference on Thursday following the 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia.
“Everyone is determined to end the [Ukraine] conflict as quickly as possible and, preferably, by peaceful means. You know that China and Brazil put forward an initiative during the assembly in New York,” Putin said in response to a question from the news agency Izvestia.
The Russian leader added that many BRICS member countries support the proposal, and that Russia is grateful to its partners for seeking ways to resolve the conflict.
Putin noted that Kiev had refused peace talks may times, calling the behavior of the Ukrainian leadership “very irrational.”
“Believe me, I know what I am talking about,” the Russian president stressed.
The Russian president noted to a journalist last week that Saudi Arabia would be a suitable location for a potential summit to end the conflict. Any final settlement should be based on the draft prepared during the aborted negotiations in Istanbul in the spring of 2022, he added.
According to Putin, the Ukrainian delegation initially approved a draft treaty that would have transformed Ukraine into a neutral country and restricted the size of its army, but then abruptly abandoned the negotiations. Officials in Kiev later said they did not trust the Russians and that Western leaders had advised them not to accept Moscow’s terms.
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has since insisted that peace can only be achieved on Kiev’s terms, including the restoration of Ukraine’s territory to its 1991 borders. Moscow has said that Zelensky’s so-called “peace formula” was unacceptable and that Kiev must recognize the new “territorial realities.”
