Government Putin: Ukraine peace negotiations possible - but without Zelenskyi

SDA

28.1.2025 - 20:30

Russian President Vladimir Putin presents himself as an apostle of peace. (archive picture)
Russian President Vladimir Putin presents himself as an apostle of peace. (archive picture)
Keystone

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared himself open to peace negotiations with Ukraine on Tuesday. However, according to his own statements, he rejects talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.

Keystone-SDA

"If he wants to take part in the negotiations, I will assign people to the negotiations," Putin said in an interview with Russian state television. However, Zelensky was "illegitimately" in power, as his term of office as president had expired during the imposition of martial law.

Putin did not talk about his own legitimacy as head of state of the Russian Federation - neither about the obstruction and exclusion of rivals he did not like, nor about the election results in Russian presidential elections, which numerous observers consider to be regularly falsified.

Putin also said that the conflict in Ukraine would quickly come to an end without Western support for Kiev. "They will not survive for a month if the money and, by extension, the ammunition runs out," Putin said of the Ukrainian side, adding, "In a month and a half or two months, everything would be over." Putin did not mention the support provided by thousands of North Korean soldiers on the Russian side.

On February 24, 2022, Russian troops invaded Ukraine on Putin's orders, allegedly with the aim of liberating the country from a "Nazi regime". The Jewish Ukrainian President Zelenskyi, who was democratically elected according to Western standards, was to be replaced by a puppet government loyal to the Kremlin in Moscow. Moscow is particularly annoyed by Ukraine's efforts to join the Western military alliance NATO.

In general, Putin denies Ukraine the right to state sovereignty and sees the Ukrainian people as part of a larger East Slavic or Russian world - Russkii Mir - as he tried to explain as an amateur historian in a longer essay from summer 2021.