Editor's observe: This can be a growing story and is being up to date.
Russia needs to finish the warfare in Ukraine "as quickly as attainable," ideally by means of peaceable means, and is able to proceed negotiations — offered that Kyiv and its Western allies are prepared to interact, President Vladimir Putin stated.
Talking throughout a roundtable with prime editors of main worldwide information companies late on June 18, Putin added that he’s prepared to satisfy with President Volodymyr Zelensky and "Russia doesn’t care who represents Ukraine in negotiations, however insists that any last settlement should bear the signature of official authorities."
The Kremlin has lengthy sought to painting Zelensky as "illegitimate" in an try and discredit Kyiv. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated on Feb. 18 that Putin, who has dominated Russia for over 20 years, is prepared for talks with Zelensky, however "authorized facets associated to his legitimacy" should be thought of.
Ukraine's allies had usually ignored this propaganda narrative till U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to echo the Kremlin's traces claiming that Zelensky was a "modestly profitable comic" turned "dictator" who "refused to have elections."
Ukraine has not held elections throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion as a result of they’re legally prohibited underneath martial regulation, which was declared on Feb. 24, 2022, simply hours after the warfare started. Ukrainian regulation additionally mandates that elections should be secure, equal, and uninterrupted—circumstances which can be not possible to satisfy amid ongoing Russian assaults on civilians and important infrastructure.
The Kyiv IndependentKateryna Denisova
Requested if he can be prepared to talk with Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Putin stated that “if the Federal Chancellor needs to name and speak, I’ve already stated this many instances — we don’t refuse any contacts."
"And we’re at all times open to this… They stopped, allow them to resume. We’re open to them,” Putin stated, including that he, nonetheless, questions Germany’s position as a mediator within the Russia-Ukraine warfare: "I do doubt if Germany can contribute greater than the USA as a mediator in our negotiations with Ukraine. A mediator should be impartial. And after we see German tanks and Leopard battle tanks on the battlefield… and now the Federal Republic is contemplating supplying Taurus missiles for assaults on Russian territory… utilizing not solely the gear itself, but in addition Bundeswehr officers — right here, in fact, massive questions come up."