2023-09-12 11:52:00
Ukraine will have to rescind a decree that effectively excludes negotiations with Russia if there is to be any prospect of talks to end the war, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday.
“If the United States believes that Ukraine is willing to negotiate, then let it cancel the decree prohibiting negotiations,” Putin said, speaking in Vladivostok at the Eastern Economic Forum.
Putin noted that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken “said they were ready (to negotiate). So they (Ukraine) should cancel the decree, then we will see.”
“They said publicly that they would not negotiate. Let them now say publicly that they want to do it,” Putin said.
In October 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy signed a decree formally declaring the prospect of any talks with Putin “impossible.”
The decree followed the Russian president’s proclamation that four occupied regions of Ukraine had formally become part of Russia.
Now is not the time for talks: Zelensky has long expressed concern about negotiating with Putin, pointing to his history of reneging on agreements.
“When you want to compromise or have a dialogue with someone, you can’t do it with a liar,” Zelensky told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria in an interview in Kiev last week.
Zelensky noted that the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin — the Russian mercenary leader whose plane crashed weeks after leading a mutiny against Moscow’s military establishment — demonstrates what happens when people make deals with Putin.
He said that when Putin realized that a large part of society supported Prigozhin, “he killed him. But before (that) he made promises to him, the territory of Belarus (Belarus), gave him new locations, African affairs and business , a lot of different things.”
Blinken told > this week that Russia needs to show it can act in good faith if it wants to have talks.
“It takes two to tango. And so far, we see no indication that… Putin has any interest in meaningful diplomacy. If he does, I think the Ukrainians will be the first to engage, and we will be right behind “Everyone wants this war to end, but it has to end on fair and lasting terms that reflect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Blinken declared.
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