President Putin Attends G20 Virtual Meeting: Russia Has Never Rejected Peace Talks

President Putin followed the G20's extraordinary online meeting. (Source: Kremlin)

JAKARTA - Russian President Vladimir Putin told leaders of the Group of Twenty (G20) on Wednesday it was important to think about how to stop the war in Ukraine, revealing his party had never rejected peace talks.

The war in Ukraine broke out in February 2022, after President Putin authorized his troops to carry out special military operations, triggering the deadliest conflict in Europe after World War II.

Speaking to G20 leaders for the first time since the start of the war, the Kremlin chief said several leaders in his speech said they were shocked by Russia's ongoing "aggression" in Ukraine.

"Yes, of course, military action is always a tragedy," Putin said at an extraordinary virtual G20 meeting convened by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as reported by Reuters, November 23.

"And of course, we must think about how to stop this tragedy," continued President Putin.

"By the way, Russia has never rejected peace talks with Ukraine," he stressed.

The statement, while clearly intended for international consumption, was one of Putin's calmest remarks on the war in months, a stark contrast to his sometimes lengthy diatribes about the failures and arrogance of the United States.

Fighting in Ukraine since February 2022 has killed or injured hundreds of thousands of people, displaced millions, and devastated large parts of the country's south and east.

Interestingly, President Putin used the word "war" to describe the conflict, not the term "special military operations" that the Kremlin uses today.

"I understand that this war, and the deaths of so many people, is a shock," President Putin said, before laying out Russia's case that Ukraine had persecuted people in eastern Ukraine.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014 after a pro-Russian president was ousted in Ukraine's Maidan Revolution and Russia annexed Crimea, with Russian-backed separatist forces fighting Ukrainian armed forces.

Some 14,000 people were killed there between 2014 and the end of 2021, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, including 3,106 civilians.

It is known that Ukraine has vowed to fight until the last Russian soldier leaves its territory, although some parties in Ukraine are calling for a different strategy.

President Putin previously skipped the G20 summits in New Delhi, India this year and Nusa Dua, Indonesia last year, sending Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to represent Russia.

The Russian leader addressed the 2021 and 2020 summits from Moscow. He last attended the G20 meeting in person in Osaka, Japan, in 2019.