The Kremlin head 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 from Eastern countries and former Soviet republics at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Russian President Vladimir Putin met separately this Friday with some of those in attendance, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, and continued contacts. The two with the greatest weight were those detained with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and with the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.
Just as he had to explain to Xi on Thursday why Russia invaded the neighboring country on February 24 and how long the conflict lasted, he had to do the same with some of his interlocutors today. Modi said: “Excellence, I know that now is not the time for war, as the safety of food, fertilizer and fuel are the biggest concerns today.”
To which, according to Russian authorities, Putin replied: “I know your position on the conflict in Ukraine, your concerns that you constantly express, but we will do everything we can to stop this as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the opposing side, 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.” Shortly afterwards, however, during the press conference, the Russian president contradicted himself and stated that “our offensive operations in Donbas are not stopping, they are progressing little by little. The plan doesn’t require us to rush.”
Moscow is the largest arms supplier to the Indian military. Therefore, New Delhi has avoided explicitly condemning the invasion of Ukraine or joining the sanctions. So far, Indian authorities have limited themselves to recommending that the Kremlin resort to diplomatic channels to resolve the conflict, a stance analogous to China’s.
On Thursday, the Russian president told Xi that “we very much appreciate the balanced position of Chinese friends regarding the crisis in Ukraine, we understand their questions and their concerns about this issue.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “pressure is mounting on Russia to end the aggression.” In his opinion, “I think what you are hearing from China, from India, reflects the concern around the world about the effects of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, not just 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 Xi later not attending dinner with him and his SCO allies.
Erdogan also met his Russian counterpart again. They last met in Sochi in early August. The Turkish president defended his country’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine and secure grain exports from Ukrainian ports. He has not stopped proposing that Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky sit down to negotiate directly even before the war started, a proposal that the Kremlin has repeatedly rejected, arguing that such a meeting requires “preparation” that is not is carried out.
The top Russian leader assured that Erdogan would not propose a meeting with Zelensky for the first time this Friday. Referring to the Turkish leader, he noted that “he has made a significant contribution to efforts to end the conflict. He always suggested meetings with Zelensky, although now he has not done it in Samarkand, but Zelensky was not willing to hold peace talks.
The last time the negotiating delegations from Moscow and Kiev met, exactly in late March in Istanbul, was Russia’s demand that Ukraine accept Crimea as part of Russia and that the separatist entities Donetsk and Lugansk form two independent states. That’s where the negotiations stalled.
Putin, in his media appearance, referred to the Ukrainian military’s recent counter-offensive and wondered “to see how they end”. In this regard, he warned that «the Russian armed forces have recently dealt some serious blows. Let’s assume they are a warning. If the situation continues to evolve like this, the reaction will be more severe.”
This is his first public comment on the defeat suffered by Russian forces in the Kharkov region. 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 pursued the disintegration of Russia”, as in his time that of the Soviet Union, and has spearheaded Kiev to achieve it. “That’s why we sent our forces to Ukraine in February to prevent this,” he said.
Source: La Verdad
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