Russia-Ukraine Negotiations

Russia’s foreign minister accused the West on Thursday of becoming directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine by supplying the country with weapons and training its soldiers... Lavrov insisted that Moscow remains open for talks on ending the conflict. “We never asked for talks but always said that we are ready to listen to those who are interested in a negotiated settlement,” he said...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that Moscow was ready to listen if anyone wanted to hold talks on Ukraine. Lavrov, speaking at a news conference in the 10th month of the war, said Ukrainian allegations that Russia wanted talks in order to win time to regroup and rebuild its armed forces were absurd. He said Russia would also be willing to return to talks with the West if it changed its mind about the merit of discussing security proposals which Moscow floated in December...

Chinese leader Xi Jinping urged negotiations on a political solution to the Ukraine conflict in talks with visiting European Council President Charles Michel in Beijing Thursday, state broadcaster CCTV said. Xi was quoted as saying that “solving the Ukrainian crisis through political means is in the best interest of Europe and the common interest of all countries in Eurasia”...

US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday demonstrated a united front in addressing the ongoing war in Ukraine but offered divergent answers over their willingness to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin, relaying that they spent much their recent meeting discussing the invasion. Biden told reporters during a joint White House news conference with Macron that he “has no immediate plans” to contact Putin, but added that he’s prepared to speak with the Russian leader if he’s looking for a way to end the war in Ukraine... Macron said that once Ukraine sets conditions for a peace agreement, he’s willing to speak with Putin...

A day after President Joe Biden said he would be willing to talk with President Vladimir Putin of Russia about a possible peace agreement in Ukraine, the Kremlin offered a frosty response, and prospects for settling the brutal conflict remained as distant as ever. Biden said Thursday that he would hold his first conversation with Putin since before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 if the Russian leader was “looking for a way to end the war”...

Macron blasted for saying Moscow needs 'security guarantees' to end the war 

French President Emmanuel Macron's statement on Saturday that the West should consider how to address Russia's need for security guarantees to end the war in Ukraine has drawn sharp criticism from some quarters, rejecting the option of making concessions to the Kremlin after nearly 10 months of the war. In an interview with French TV station TF1 recorded during his state visit to the US last week, Macron said Europe needs to prepare its future security architecture...

About half of Americans (47 percent) say that Ukraine should be pushed into a peace agreement with Russia as soon as possible, according to survey results released on Monday. An Ipsos poll conducted by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs found that the percentage of Americans who say the U.S. should urge Ukraine to settle, in part so that costs will lessen for American households, had increased from 38 percent in July to 47 percent in November...

Russia said on Tuesday that it can agree with the United States about the need for lasting peace in Ukraine, but played down the prospect of negotiations until it achieves the goals of its "special military operation". Both U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin have said they are open to diplomacy on Ukraine, but a meeting between the two leaders has not been organised and neither side agrees on the conditions for talks. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in an interview on Monday that the conflict in Ukraine, now in its 10th month, would almost certainly end with diplomacy and negotiations, and that "just and durable peace" was needed...

Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged Wednesday that his “special military operation” in Ukraine is taking longer than expected but said it has succeeded in seizing new territory and added that his country’s nuclear weapons are deterring escalation of the conflict. “Of course, it could be a lengthy process,” Putin said of the more than 9-month-old war that began with Russia’s invasion Feb. 24 and has displaced millions from their homes, and killed and wounded tens of thousands...

Russia said on Thursday that it was still set on securing at least the bulk of the parts of east and south Ukraine that it has claimed as its own, but appeared to give up on seizing other areas in the west and northeast that Ukraine has recaptured. The Kremlin has never fully defined the goals of its invasion, which it said was partly intended to protect Russian-speakers in eastern Ukraine. But it no longer speaks of trying to force a change of government in Kyiv as Ukraine has steadily reversed early Russian territorial gains...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that there was no need for Moscow to conduct additional mobilization of reservists. Putin said that more than 300,000 reservists were drafted in September and October, in what Russian authorities called "partial mobilization.” 150,000 of those drafted were deployed to the war on Ukraine, Putin said, adding that 77,000 were in combat units and the remainder performed defensive functions...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said his reminders about Russia’s supply of nuclear weapons are a “factor of deterrence” in the war with Ukraine, not one of escalation. Putin told members of the Kremlin’s presidential human rights council that Russia would not be able to use nuclear weapons at all if it agreed to not use them first and then come under a nuclear attack...

In a flurry of diplomacy on Sunday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy held talks with the leaders of the U.S., France and Turkey. With the war now dragging into a tenth month, there appears to be no end in sight to the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two... It's rare for Ukraine's president to hold talks with all three leaders in just one day... During his call with Biden, the U.S. leader promised to help boost Ukraine's air defense to protect the civilian population. Zelenskiy said his call with French President Emmanuel Macron, earlier in the day, had lasted more than an hour...

Kosovo’s prime minister, Albin Kurti, has warned of Russia inflaming tensions between his country and Serbia due to the war in Ukraine faltering, as Belgrade took its first step in deploying troops to the region. Ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo, where they are in the majority, have had barricades set up for more than a week, preventing the free movement of the Kosovan authorities, despite US and EU calls for the illegal road blocks to be dismantled...