Jakarta –
President of Russia Vladimir Putin said the African initiative can be the basis of peace in Ukraine. But according to Putin, the Ukrainian attack made that difficult to achieve.
The remarks were made by Putin at a press conference on Saturday (29/7) after meeting African leaders in St Petersburg on Friday. He heard their calls for Moscow to continue with their plan.
“There are provisions of this peace initiative that are being implemented. But there are things that are difficult or impossible to implement,” Putin said, reported by Reuters, Sunday (30/7/2023).
Reuters reported in June that African mediation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict could start with confidence-building measures followed by a cessation of hostilities agreement and negotiations between Russia and the West.
Putin said one of the points of the initiative was a ceasefire. But Ukraine is said to be attacking on the offensive so that Russia cannot have a ceasefire when attacked.
“But the Ukrainian army is attacking, they are attacking, they are carrying out large-scale strategic offensive operations… We cannot stop fire when we are attacked,” he said.
Meanwhile regarding the question of starting peace talks, Putin said he did not reject the peace talks. But he asked for an agreement between the two parties.
“We are not rejecting them… In order for this process to begin, there needs to be agreement from both sides,” he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has at times rejected the idea of a truce. That would leave Russia in control of nearly a fifth of the country and give its troops time to regroup after 17 months of war.
(yld/knv)
2023-07-30 07:25:00
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