President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia wants an end to the war in Ukraine and that would inevitably include a diplomatic solution.
Putin made the comments a day after US President Joe Biden hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House and promised him continued and unwavering US support.
“Our goal is not to turn the flywheel of a military conflict, but on the contrary, to end this war,” Putin said. “We will try to put an end to this, and the sooner, of course, the better.”
White House spokesman John Kirby said Putin has shown “absolutely zero indication that he is willing to negotiate” an end to the war, which began when Moscow sent troops into Ukraine on February 24.
“Quite the opposite,” Kirby told reporters during an online briefing. “Everything he (Putin) is doing on the ground and in the air points to a man who wants to continue to visit the Ukrainian people” and “escalate the war.”
Kirby reiterated that Biden is open to talks with Putin, but only after the Russian leader is “serious about talks” and consults with Ukraine and US allies.
Russia has consistently said it is open to talks, but Ukraine and its allies suspect it is a ploy to buy time after a series of Russian defeats and retreats that have ended 10 months in Kyiv’s favor. has changed the course of the war.
Putin told JEE News that I have said many times: the intensity of hostilities leads to unjustified losses.
“All armed conflicts end in some way through some form of negotiation through diplomatic channels,” he added. “Sooner or later, any side in a conflict is going to sit down and make a deal. The sooner our opponents realize that, the better. We’ve never given up on that.”
Russia says it is Ukraine that is refusing to talk. Kyiv says Russia should stop its attacks and relinquish all the territories it has seized.
Putin also played down the importance of the Patriot air defense system that Biden agreed to provide to Zelensky, saying Russia would find a way to counter it.
He said it is “quite old” and doesn’t work as well as Russia’s S-300 system. “An antidote will always be found,” he said, boasting Russia would “crack” the patriots.
“So those who do that are doing it in vain. It’s just prolonging the conflict, that’s all.”
Putin also said that Western price caps on Russian oil, designed to limit its ability to fund the war, would not hurt the Russian economy. He said he would sign an executive order early next week to determine Russia’s response.
