‘We are ready for negotiations’, Russian President Vladimir Putin

Russian President Putin has expressed these views on Sunday at a time when many cities in Ukraine, including Kharkiv and Zaporizhia, are being bombarded by Russia. High officials in Kiev immediately rejected Putin’s offer. America has also said that Putin does not seem sincere in his words in the context of the ongoing attacks on Ukraine.

In an interview broadcast on state television Russia One, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, “We are ready to negotiate with each other for an acceptable solution, and now it depends on the other side. And we refuse to negotiate.” They are not.” He said Russia was moving in the “right direction” in Ukraine as the West, led by the United States, sought to isolate Russia.

The Russian leader said that the West had started the conflict in Ukraine by overthrowing the pro-Russian president in the Revolution Square protests in 2014. Shortly after the revolution, Russia annexed Crimea and Russian-backed separatist forces began fighting the army in eastern Ukraine.

“Actually, the main thing here is the policy of our geopolitical opponents, which aims to dismember Russia, a historical Russia,” President Putin said. Putin was referring to the idea that the Ukrainian and Russian peoples are one.

“They (the West) have always followed a policy of ‘divide and conquer’…but our goal is different, our goal is to unite the Russian people,” he said. “I believe we are working in the right direction, we are defending our national interests, our citizens, the interests of our people and we have no choice but to protect our citizens,” he added. “

Asked if the geopolitical conflict with the West was reaching dangerous levels, President Putin said, “I don’t think the conflict is that dangerous.”

This statement of the Russian President has come at a time when Ukraine issued two nationwide air alerts on Sunday. Mikhail Podoliak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Myrzelinsky, said Putin needed to come back to reality and admit that it was Russia that did not want any negotiations.

Mikhail Podoliak said on Twitter that Russia alone invaded Ukraine and is killing civilians. Russia does not want negotiations, rather it is trying to avoid responsibility.

In the past 24 hours, three missiles fell on the city of Kramatorsk, while Kharkiv was attacked ten times by the Russians. A statement released by Ukraine said that Russia fired missiles at more than 25 towns along the Kopyansk Leman and 20 other locations in Zaporizhia.

According to a senior government official, 71 missiles were fired in Kherson area during the last 24 hours, of which 41 missiles were dropped on Kherson city alone. Ukraine and the West say Putin has no justification for an imperialist-style war of occupation. This war has sown suffering and death throughout Ukraine.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has appealed for immediate peace in Ukraine, where people have been suffering greatly during the war that has been going on for the past ten months.

In his Christmas address to the nation on Sunday, the German president expressed his concern over the worsening situation in the past ten months since Russia’s military action against Ukraine. “It is our deepest desire that peace be restored in the region as soon as possible,” he said.