- MOSCOW
— Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday proposed holding direct talks
with Ukraine in Istanbul on May 15, hours after Kyiv and European leaders
called for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire to start on Monday.
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- Putin did not explicitly address that call in his statement,
delivered after 1 a.m. in the Kremlin, instead outlining the counter-proposal
for fresh Russia-Ukraine negotiations.
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- "We propose to the Kyiv authorities to resume the talks
that they broke off in 2022, and, I emphasise, without any preconditions,"
Putin said.
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- The leaders of Ukraine, Britain, France, Germany and Poland
had in Kyiv on Saturday threatened Moscow with fresh sanctions and military
support for Ukraine if Russia did not agree with the proposal.
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- Russian and Ukrainian negotiators held direct talks in
Istanbul in the first weeks of the conflict, but failed to agree to halt the
fighting, which has been raging ever since.
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- "We propose to start (negotiations) without delay on
Thursday, May 15 in Istanbul," Putin said, adding that he would talk to
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan soon to ask for his help to facilitate
the talks.
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- Putin said he was "committed to serious negotiations
with Ukraine" and that he wanted talks to "eliminate the root causes
of the conflict and to establish a long-lasting peace".
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- Russia's references to the "root causes" of the
conflict typically refer to alleged grievances with Kyiv and the West that
Moscow has put forward as justification for launching the war in February 2022.
Also read: Trump calls for 30-day ceasefire between Russia, Ukraine
- They include pledges to "de-Nazify" Ukraine,
protect Russian speakers in the country's east, push back against NATO
expansion and stop Ukraine's westward geopolitical drift.
