The Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday says he is ready for talks with Ukraine on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow and Kyiv negotiators that was reached in Istanbul in 2022 the terms of which were never made public.
This he said while speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum in the city of Vladivostok.
“Are we ready to negotiate with them? We have never refused to do so, but not on the basis of some ephemeral demands, but on the basis of those documents that were agreed and actually signed in Istanbul,” Putin said.
“We managed to reach an agreement, that is the whole point,” Putin said Thursday. “The signature of the head of the Ukrainian delegation who supported this document testifies to this, which means that the Ukrainian side was generally satisfied with the agreements reached.”
“It did not come into force only because they were given a command not to do so, because the elites of the United States, Europe [and] some European countries wanted to achieve a strategic defeat of Russia,” the Russian leader claimed.
Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told US TV channel NBC that Ukraine would hold on to the territory captured in the Kursk region.
While Russian officials have said in recent weeks that the Kursk incursion makes any talks with Ukraine impossible, Putin appeared to roll back those statements.
