Putin ‘ready’ for talks with Kyiv, Kremlin says
Russian President Vladimir Putin is “ready” to engage in diplomatic talks, a Kremlin spokesperson said approximately 48 hours after the invasion of Ukraine.
"In response to Zelensky's offer, Vladimir Putin is ready to send to Minsk a Russian delegation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday, per the Wall Street Journal.
The statement came hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky most recently reiterated his calls for such discussions between the two governments.
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“I would like to address the president of the Russian Federation once again. Fighting is going on all over Ukraine. Let's sit down at the negotiating table to stop the death of people," he said in a video, according to a Russian translation.
Putin has often used deception and misdirection during his presidency and throughout this crisis, so it’s unclear whether the sentiments are sincere.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price expressed skepticism later on Friday.
“I don't think it takes a grand geopolitical analyst to know that an offer of diplomacy as you rain down bombs, mortar shells, as your tanks advance towards a capital of 2.9 million people as your forces encircle, a capital as your political leaders make demands of demilitarization, make demands of a fundamentally neutral foreign policy, essentially removing agency that Kyiv should otherwise have, that is not the context in which diplomacy can succeed,” he said.
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Earlier this month, before the invasion began, Putin claimed he wanted to get back to the negotiating table and that Russia would pull some of the almost 200,000 troops that had been amassed along Ukraine’s border. However, that ended up being a farce.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, one of the top diplomats for Russia, said they’re “ready for negotiations at any time” but conditioned it upon Ukrainian troops “lay down their weapons,” according to Bloomberg News.
He also repeated false claims from Putin that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is driven by its desire to “demilitarize" Ukraine and initiate a "de-Nazification.”
Russia's call for talks is predicated on Ukrainian surrender, and Minsk would be a hostile capital for Zelensky to travel to because of Belarus's alignment with Putin.
Zelensky, in a video address to his people earlier in the day, accused Russian forces of targeting him.
"According to our information, the enemy marked me as target No. 1 — my family as target No. 2. They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state. We have information that enemy sabotage groups have entered Kyiv," he said.
He's also been moved to a bunker, according to CNN, while the White House declined to provide specifics about his location. Zelensky acknowledged he is still in Kyiv with his central government.
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While the news of diplomacy is likely welcomed by Zelensky, who on Friday morning announced 137 Ukrainian soldiers were killed and another 316 had been injured, U.S. officials have shared their belief Putin’s goal is to oust him and his government.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he’s “convinced" of Putin’s plan to remove Zelensky on Thursday night in the U.S., and a senior defense official told reporters earlier that day they "still believe … they have every intention of basically decapitating the government and installing their own method of governance."
During the first day of the invasion, Russian forces hit Ukraine from the south, east, and north, with the troops from the north heading toward Kyiv. Large blasts were heard in Kyiv early Friday morning.
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