Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a news conference after a gathering of the State Council on youth policy in Moscow, Russia, December 22, 2022.
Sergey Guneev | Sputnik | Reuters
Russia is able to negotiate with all parties involved within the war in Ukraine but Kyiv and its Western backers have refused to have interaction in talks, President Vladimir Putin said in an interview aired on Sunday.
Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine has triggered probably the most deadly conflict in Europe since World War Two and the most important confrontation between Moscow and the West because the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
here is, to date, little end in sight to the war.
The Kremlin says it is going to fight until all its goals are achieved while Kyiv says it is going to not rest until every Russian soldier is ejected from all of its territory, including Crimea which Russia annexed in 2014.
“We’re able to negotiate with everyone involved about acceptable solutions, but that’s as much as them — we should not those refusing to barter, they’re,” Putin told Rossiya 1 state television within the interview.
CIA Director William Burns said in an interview published this month that while most conflicts end in negotiation, the CIA’s assessment was that Russia was not yet serious a few real negotiation to finish the war.
An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Putin needed to return to reality and acknowledge that it was Russia that didn’t want any negotiations.
“Russia single-handedly attacked Ukraine and is killing residents,” Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter. “Russia doesn’t want negotiations, but tries to avoid responsibility.”
‘No other selection’
Putin said Russia was acting within the “right direction” in Ukraine since the West, led by the USA, was attempting to cleave Russia apart. Washington denies it’s plotting Russia’s collapse.
“I think that we’re acting in the appropriate direction, we’re defending our national interests, the interests of our residents, our people. And we’ve no other selection but to guard our residents,” Putin said.
Asked if the geopolitical conflict with the West was approaching a dangerous level, Putin said: “I do not think it is so dangerous.”
Putin said the West had begun the conflict in Ukraine in 2014 by toppling a pro-Russian president within the Maidan Revolution protests.
Soon after that revolution, Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine and Russian-backed separatist forces began fighting Ukraine’s armed forces in eastern Ukraine.
“Actually, the basic thing here is the policy of our geopolitical opponents which is geared toward pulling apart Russia, historical Russia,” Putin said.
Putin casts what he calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine as a watershed moment when Moscow finally stood as much as a Western bloc he says has been searching for to destroy Russia because the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
Ukraine and the West say Putin has no justification for what they solid as an imperial-style war of occupation that has sown suffering and death across Ukraine.
Putin described Russia as a “unique country” and said the overwhelming majority of its people were united in wanting to defend it.
“As for the fundamental part — the 99.9% of our residents, our people who find themselves ready to offer all the pieces for the interests of the Motherland — there may be nothing unusual for me here,” Putin said.
“This just once more convinces me that Russia is a novel country and that we’ve an exceptional people. This has been confirmed throughout the history of Russia’s existence.”
