Putin: Russia ready for direct conversations with Ukraine

Putin: Russia ready for direct conversations with Ukraine

Russia's President Vladimir Putin proposed "direct talks" with Ukraine in Istanbul on Thursday. This is done, while European heads of state and government and the United States put pressure on Moscow in order to achieve a 30-day ceasefire agreement that could end the three-year conflict.

Putin's proposal for conversations in Istanbul

"We would like to start immediately, next Thursday, May 15th, in Istanbul, where the talks took place before and where they were interrupted," Putin explained in a rare nightly speech. He emphasized that the talks should take place "without any preconditions".

Focus of the negotiations

"We are set to serious negotiations with Ukraine," continued Putin. These are designed to "eliminate the root causes of the conflict" and "to achieve a long -term, sustainable peace agreement".

international support for the ceasefire

This proposal came only a few hours after the leaders of Germany, France, Great Britain and Poland Putin had asked to agree to a 30-day ceasefire to begin on Monday. Otherwise he could expect "massive sanctions", as French President Emmanuel Macron explained during a symbolic visit in Kiev.

reactions from the Kremlin

The claim received backing from the White House after the European heads of state and government had made a phone call to US President Donald Trump. Shortly after the call to a ceasefire, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia is "resistant to any kind of pressure".

questions remain open

"Europe is actually very open to us," said Peskov. He added that Putin supported the idea of ​​a ceasefire "in general", but "many questions" would still have to be clarified for the recent proposal. He did not go into what questions are.

talks with Turkey

on Sunday Putin also announced that he would talk to the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about the implementation of discussions with Kiev.

This is a developing history and is updated regularly.