Russia: Vladimir Putin proposes China, Brazil and India as possible mediators for peace with Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday proposed China, Brazil and India as possible mediators in future peace negotiations with Ukraine, in contrast to the US and European powers, which Moscow says are interested in prolonging the conflict.

“We respect our friends and partners who, I believe, are sincerely interested in resolving all the problems related to this conflict. These are primarily China, Brazil and India,” Putin said during the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.

Putin, who has just returned from Mongolia, where the authorities ignored the arrest warrant for the Russian president issued by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, again accused the West of putting pressure on kyiv to not cease hostilities in the neighbouring country.

“As of today, we do not see the conditions for holding peace negotiations”said presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Three BRICS mediators

“Are we ready to enter into negotiations with them (the Ukrainians)? We have never opposed this. But not on the basis of some ephemeral demands, but on the basis of documents agreed upon and actually initialled in Istanbul,” he said of the March 2022 agreements.

According to Putin, If the Ukrainians had signed this document, “the war would have been over long ago,” but the goal of the Americans and Europeans is to achieve “the strategic defeat of Russia.”

“This is not happening,” he said.

Meanwhile, he added, the leaders of China, Brazil and India “honestly aspire to help understand all the details of this complicated process.”

“I am in constant contact with our colleagues on this matter,” he stressed.

The leaders of these three countries will meet with Putin next October in the Tatar city of Kazan, which will host the summit of the BRICS group of emerging countries, to which Turkey has also requested to join, a possible venue for these future negotiations along with Austria, which offered itself as a venue today.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has always supported the Russian argument that NATO is the main person responsible for the current conflict, although he has not completely broken ties with kyiv and, in fact, received the Ukrainian foreign minister in Beijing in July.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a close relationship with Putin, but he also met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev in August, calling on him to find “innovative solutions” to restore peace.

For its part, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was very forceful in his support for the Kremlin in the early months of the war, but has recently been pleading with Putin for a ceasefire and direct talks.

Expel Ukrainian troops before peace negotiations

Putin made it clear again today that before negotiating with the enemy, Russia must expel its troops from the border region of Kursk, a Ukrainian incursion that will complete one month on Friday.

Our armed forces have stabilised the situation and have begun to expel (the enemy) from the border territories.

“Our armed forces have stabilised the situation and have begun to expel (the enemy) from the border territories,” he said.

He added that kyiv had not achieved its intended goal with the attack, which was to halt the Russian offensive, mainly in Donbas.

“On the contrary, by moving its larger and better trained units to the border areas, the enemy was weakened in key sectors and our troops accelerated offensive operations,” he explained.

According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, Ukraine has suffered more than 10,000 casualties in Kursk, where it controls around 100 towns and nearly 1,300 square kilometres.

Meanwhile, according to the daily military report, Russian forces have captured the Ukrainian town of Zavitne in their advance towards the Pokrovsk stronghold in the Donetsk region.

According to the Ukrainian Deep State project, the Russian army has conquered some 355 square kilometers in Donetsk and neighboring Lugansk during the month of August.

Putin stressed that Russia had not made such “territorial gains” in Ukraine for a long time.

Irony with Kamala Harris

Regarding the US elections, the outcome of which will determine the settlement of the conflict, according to experts, Putin was ironic.

“I already said that our favorite, if you can say that, was the current president, Mr. (Joe) Biden. Now he has been removed from the presidential race and he has recommended to all his supporters to support Harris. We will do the same, we will support her,” he said.

He stressed that the current vice president “laughs in such an expressive and contagious way that it shows that everything is going well for her.”

Donald Trump “has imposed more sanctions against Russia than any president before him. And if all goes well for Harris, she may refrain from such actions,” he said.