Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, has stated that Russia wants to put an end to the conflict in Ukraine and that a diplomatic settlement is the only way to do it.
He said this on Thursday evening, December 22, one day after U.S. President Joe Biden welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House and assured him of the country’s continuing and unwavering military support.
The Russian president said, “Our goal is not to spin the flywheel of military conflict, but, on the contrary, to end this war. We will strive for an end to this, and the sooner the better, of course.”
Russia has repeatedly stated that it is willing to engage in negotiations, but Ukraine and its allies believe this to be a deception to buy time following a string of Russian setbacks and retreats that have tipped the balance of the 10-month war to Kyiv’s advantage.
“I have said many times: the intensification of hostilities leads to unjustified losses,” Putin said to reporters.
“All armed conflicts end one way or another with some kind of negotiations on the diplomatic track. Sooner or later, any parties in a state of conflict sit down and make an agreement. The sooner this realization comes to those who oppose us, the better. We have never given up on this.”
Russia claims that Ukraine is the one refusing to negotiate, but Kyiv demands that Russia stop all of its strikes and release all captured land.
The Patriot air defence system that Biden agreed to give Zelensky was also downplayed by Putin, who claimed that Russia would find a method to counter it.
He claimed it was “quite old” and didn’t function like the S-300 system used by Russia. He boasted that Russia would “crack” the Patriots and stated that “an antidote would always be found.”
“So those who do it are doing it in vain. It’s just prolonging the conflict, that’s all,” he said.
Putin’s comments follow White House spokesman John Kirby’s claim that Putin has “shown absolutely zero indication that he’s willing to negotiate” an end to the conflict, which started on February 24 when Moscow launched soldiers into Ukraine.
Kirby told reporters in an online briefing, “Quite the contrary. Everything he (Putin) is doing on the ground and in the air bespeaks a man who wants to continue to visit violence upon the Ukrainian people” and “intensify the war.”
Biden is willing to meet with Putin, but only when the Russian president “showed a seriousness about negotiations,” Kirby said.