“We are ready to talk to Putin,” says Ukrainian presidency

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is ready to speak directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but “will not commit to the Russian position during these negotiations,” Deputy Chief of Staff to the President of Ukraine, Igor Zhovkva, told reporters. CNN.

Although talks between the Ukrainian and Russian foreign ministers, held on Thursday in the Turkish city of Antalya, did not produce much progress, Ukraine was not very optimistic from the start, Zhovkva said.

“It is a very good thing that they met, but unfortunately we can say that the Russian Foreign Minister is not the one who makes the final decision. The final decision to stop the war, make a ceasefire, withdraw troops is made by only one person,” he said, apparently referring to Putin.

Zhovkva said that while Zelensky was ready for a diplomatic solution, he had not heard from the Russian president personally or from his advisers.

“The last thing I heard from them was that we still have to work under the two-delegation format held in custody by Russian forces.”

Zhovkva declared that Ukraine is open to neutrality “if the NATO bloc is not ready for now to accept Ukraine”.

“But at the same time, we need strict security guarantees for Ukraine so that these terrible wars, this terrible aggression, will not be repeated in the future,” he added.

Zhovkva said Ukraine wanted to work with Putin and his neighbors to establish a system he called “Europe’s renewed security system.”

“My country, the Ukrainian people, deserves to be part of the European family… Ukraine is fighting for the security of the whole of Europe. So when the president [Emmanuel] Macron talks about possible European security, how can he talk without President Zelensky at the table? Without having President Zelensky and Ukraine in the European Union?” said Zhovkva.

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