Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Thursday, April 22, about his readiness to discuss with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky Russian-Ukrainian relations in Moscow at any time convenient for the President of Ukraine.
“If we are talking about the development of bilateral relations, then please, we will receive the President of Ukraine in Moscow at any time convenient for him,” Putin stressed during talks with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.
At the same time, the Russian president stressed that Kiev has recently taken many steps that destroy relations with Moscow. However, according to him, if Zelenskiy wants to start restoring relations, Russia will welcome it.
Putin clarified that in this case, we are also talking about a number of problems in bilateral relations.
“This concerns the attitude towards the Russian language, towards Russian-speaking citizens of Ukraine and towards Russian citizens living in Ukraine. There were a lot of steps aimed at destroying our relations, which we, of course, can only regret, ”added the head of state.
Earlier, on April 20, Zelensky invited Putin to meet “anywhere” in Donbass. According to the Ukrainian leader, the different views of the two countries on the past and on the future can be viewed not as a problem, but as an opportunity.
On April 21, political analyst Alexander Asafov expressed the opinion that Zelensky, by offering a meeting to Putin, is working on Ukraine’s “internal media agenda”.
On April 19, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said following a video conference of EU foreign ministers that the Normandy format remains a suitable platform for achieving de-escalation of the situation in eastern Ukraine. He also called on the Russian Federation and Ukraine to cooperate.
Since 2014, Kiev has been conducting a military operation against the residents of Donbass, who refused to recognize the results of the coup in the country. In the current situation, the Ukrainian authorities blame Moscow. The Russian Federation has repeatedly stated that it is not a party to the internal Ukrainian conflict. Russia also called on Kiev to negotiate with the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics and to implement the Minsk agreements and achieve de-escalation.