We’re ready for Ukraine peace talks, Kremlin claims

The Kremlin has claimed it is ready for peace talks with the US over the war in Ukraine but rejected western terms for opening the negotiations.

It comes a day after President Biden appeared to offer an olive branch to his Russian counterpart, President Putin.

Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, told reporters that Russia was “open to contacts and negotiations”, and claimed that Moscow would prefer a diplomatic resolution. However, Peskov made clear that talks were unlikely to progress without Washington accepting Russia’s annexation of parts of southern and eastern Ukraine.

“What did President Biden actually say?” Peskov said. “He said the negotiations would be possible only if Putin leaves Ukraine.”

Asked by reporters if “the Kremlin is not ready for that”, Peskov replied: “Well, clearly not.” Using Russia’s euphemism for its invasion of Ukraine, he added: “The special military operation is continuing.”

Western calls to Putin to engage in talks have intensified in recent days. In an hour-long phone call today Olaf Scholz urged Putin to seek a diplomatic solution in Ukraine, “including a withdrawal of Russian troops” as soon as possible, the German chancellor’s spokesman said.

In response Putin told Scholz that western support for Ukraine “leads to the fact that Kyiv completely rejects the idea of any negotiations”, the Kremlin said.

After a meeting with President Macron of France in Washington yesterday, Biden said he was ready to speak to Putin “if in fact there is an interest in him deciding he’s looking for a way to end the war”, adding that the Russian leader “hasn’t done that yet”.

Biden said “the rational way” for the war to end was for “Putin to pull out” but after consulting Nato allies he would be “happy to sit down with Putin to see what he has in mind”.

However, Peskov said western refusal to recognise the four annexed territories “seriously complicates the search for any ground for possible discussion”.

President Zelensky of Ukraine has insisted he is only willing to entertain talks with Russia once Putin has left power.

Macron said yesterday that he and Biden had agreed they would not lean on Kyiv to accept a compromise “that will not be acceptable for them”.

In an interview with Radio 4’s Today programme, Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is visiting Ukraine, agreed “there must be no way in which we force peace on Ukraine or they’re put under pressure”.

Despite the rise in calls for talks, it seems unlikely they could progress without Russia or the West crossing their own “red lines”.

Moscow rejects any suggestion that areas it occupied and “absorbed” are not part of Russia, while the West insists that respect for Ukraine’s territorial integrity is vital to any solution.

Antonio Tajani, Italy’s foreign minister, told La Repubblica newspaper that Ukraine deserved a “just peace” that did not involve its surrender.

“The Kremlin must now give concrete signals instead of bombing the population,” he said.