“We are ready to negotiate with anyone involved on acceptable solutions, but it depends on them,” the Russian president said
President Vladimir Putin has said Russia is ready to negotiate with all sides involved in the war in Ukraine, but Kyiv and its Western backers have refused to engage in talks.
Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine sparked Europe’s deadliest military conflict since World War II and the biggest standoff between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
So far, there is little sign of the possibility of an end to the war.
The Kremlin says it will fight until all its objectives are achieved, while Kyiv says it will not rest until every Russian soldier is expelled from all its territories, including Crimea, which Russia seized in 2014.
“We are ready to negotiate with anyone involved on acceptable solutions, but it is up to them. We are not the ones who refuse to negotiate. They refuse,” the Russian president told state-run Rossiya 1 TV station during an interview broadcast today.
Putin said Russia is acting in the “right direction” in Ukraine because the West, led by the US, is trying to dismember Russia.
“I believe that we are acting in the right direction, we are defending our national interests, the interests of our citizens, our people. We have no choice but to protect our citizens,” said President Putin.
Earlier today though, Ukrainian officials said air raid sirens sounded in the morning in Kyiv and in all Ukrainian regions.
Unconfirmed reports on Ukrainian social media said the alert may have been sounded after Russian jets took off in Belarus.
Reuters was unable to immediately confirm this information.
Ten dead yesterday in Khersona
At least ten people were killed and 58 others were wounded in yesterday’s shelling in Kherson, Ukrainian authorities said, denouncing an unprovoked attack by Russian forces on the city, which was recently retaken by Ukrainians after the withdrawal of the Russian army.
A pro-Russian official claimed that Ukrainian forces launched the attack and that their aim was to pin the blame on Moscow.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky released photos showing burnt cars, broken windows and dead bodies on the streets. “Social media platforms will likely flag these photos as ‘sensitive content.’ But it’s not sensitive content. It is the everyday life of Ukraine and Ukrainians,” he wrote. “These are not military installations. It’s terror, it’s killing for intimidation and for pleasure,” he added.
Russia controls most but not all of Kherson province. Local governor Yaroslav Yanusevych, appointed by Kyiv, told Ukrainian television that the death toll had reached 10.
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