The head of the Kremlin insists that it is the Ukrainians who want to fight in an invasion that was carried out to prevent the West from achieving its goal of “disintegrating Russia”
Taking advantage of the influx of numerous leaders of Eastern countries and former Soviet republics on the occasion of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Samarkand (Uzbekistan), the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, met this Friday separately with several of the attendees, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, and continued the contacts. The two with the greatest weight were those held with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and with the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.
Just as on Thursday he had to explain to Xi about the reasons why Russia invaded the neighboring country on February 24 and how long the conflict has lasted, today he had to do the same with some of his interlocutors. Modi said that “Your Excellency, I know that now is not the time for war, as the security of food, fertilizer and fuel supplies are among the top concerns today.”
To which Putin replied, according to Russian agencies, “I know your position on the conflict in Ukraine, your concerns that you constantly express, but we will do everything to stop this as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, the opposite party, the Ukrainian leadership, has rejected the negotiation process, has announced that it wants to achieve its goals by military means, as they say, on the battlefield.” However, shortly after, during the press conference, the Russian president contradicted himself, stating that “our offensive operations, in Donbas, do not stop, they advance little by little. The plan does not require us to rush.”
Moscow is the largest supplier of weapons to the Indian Army, which is why New Delhi has avoided explicitly condemning the invasion of Ukraine or joining the sanctions. Until now, the Indian authorities have limited themselves to recommending that the Kremlin resort to diplomatic channels to resolve the conflict, a position analogous to that of China.
On Thursday, the Russian president told Xi that “we highly appreciate the balanced position of Chinese friends regarding the Ukraine crisis, we understand their questions and their concerns on this matter.”
Pressure on Moscow
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that “the pressure is increasing on Russia to end the aggression.” In his opinion, “I think what you are hearing from China, from India, reflects the concerns around the world about the effects of Russian aggression in Ukraine, not only on the Ukrainian people.” “I think it increases the pressure on Russia to end the aggression,” he added. But Putin told reporters that his meeting with the Chinese president “was normal,” despite the fact that Xi did not later attend dinner with him and his SCO allies.
Erdogan also met with his Russian counterpart again. They met the previous time at the beginning of August in Sochi. The Turkish president defended his country’s efforts to stop the war in Ukraine and achieve the export of grain from Ukrainian ports. He has not stopped proposing that Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky sit down to negotiate directly, even before the war began, a proposal that the Kremlin has repeatedly rejected, arguing that such a meeting requires “preparation” that has not been carried out. cape.
No peace talks
The top Russian leader assured that this Friday, for the first time, Erdogan did not propose a meeting with Zelenski again. Referring to the Turkish leader, he noted that he “has made a significant contribution to attempts to end the conflict. He always proposed meetings with Zelensky, although now he has not done it in Samarkand, but Zelensky has not been prepared to hold peace talks ».
The last time the negotiating delegations from Moscow and kyiv met, in Istanbul precisely at the end of March, the Russian demand was Ukraine’s acceptance that Crimea should belong to Russia and the separatist entities of Donetsk and Lugansk constitute two independent states. There the negotiations broke down.
Putin referred in his appearance before the media to the recent counteroffensives of the Ukrainian Army and wondered “to see how they end.” In this regard, he warned that «recently, the Russian armed forces have inflicted a couple of noticeable blows. Let’s assume they are a warning. If the situation continues to develop like this, then the response will be more serious.”
This has been his first public comment on the defeat suffered by the Russian troops in the Kharkov region. Then, in response, Russian forces bombed vital infrastructure in Ukraine, including a power plant and a dam. This Thursday, Putin insisted that “the West has always sought the disintegration of Russia”, as in its day that of the Soviet Union, and has been using kyiv as a spearhead to achieve it. “That is why we sent our armed forces to Ukraine in February, to prevent it,” he assured.
Topics
Narendra Modi, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Vladimir Putin, Volodimir Zelensky, Xi Jinping, China, India, Russia, Samarkand, Ukraine, Turkey, War in Ukraine
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