Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Monday said Ukraine wanted direct talks between President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Russia’s Vladimir Putin because Kyiv knows Putin is the person calling the shots in Moscow.
“We have long wanted a direct conversation between the president of Ukraine and Vladimir Putin, because we all understand that it is he who makes the final decisions, especially now,” he said in a live television broadcast.
“Our president is not scared of anything, including a direct meeting with Putin,” Kuleba added. “If Putin is also not scared, let him come to the meeting, let them sit down and talk.”
Meanwhile, Russia has told Ukraine it is ready to halt military operations “in a moment” if Kyiv meets a list of conditions, the Kremlin spokesman said on Monday.
Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was demanding that Ukraine cease military action, change its constitution to enshrine neutrality, acknowledge Crimea as Russian territory, and recognise the separatist republics of Donetsk and Lugansk as independent states.
It was the most explicit Russian statement so far of the terms it wants to impose on Ukraine to halt what it calls its “special military operation”, now in its 12th day.
Peskov told Reuters in a telephone interview that Ukraine was aware of the conditions. “And they were told that all this can be stopped in a moment.”
There was no immediate reaction from the Ukrainian side.
International Criminal Court at The Hague hears Russian-Ukraine matter:
