Russian-US Envoy Negotiates, Putin Claims Serious Wants To Play A War With Ukraine

JAKARTA - The Kremlin insists Russian President Vladimir Putin is serious in negotiating a settlement to end the war in Ukraine when high-level negotiations begin in Saudi Arabia. Russia is claimed to prefer to achieve all its goals peacefully.

Putin sent Russian troops to Ukraine in 2022. He has repeatedly said it is ready to discuss an end to a war that reflects the reality on the ground, where advanced Russian forces now control nearly a fifth of Ukraine.

Western intelligence, European leaders, and former US president Joe Biden have repeatedly insisted they don't think Putin really wants peace, even though US President Donald Trump says he takes Putin seriously.

President Putin has been repeating his words about his readiness to hold peace talks from the start, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"The main thing for us is to achieve our goals, and of course we prefer a peaceful way to achieve our goals," he said.

Peskov said there was no understanding of the date of the meeting between Putin and Trump, although talks at Riyadh might provide clarity. He said it was impossible to provide any picture of the negotiations as the talks had just begun.

When asked if Putin was specifically willing to negotiate with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Peskov said Putin had repeatedly said so.

But he also said any agreement should consider possible challenges to Zelenskiy's legitimacy, which refers to the fact Zelenskiy is still in office after his normal term ends as Ukraine is under martial law.

Peskov said joining the European Union was Ukraine's sovereign right if it wanted to, but Moscow's position was different when joining the military alliance.

Moscow says one of the goals of its so-called special military operations' is to prevent the possibility of Ukraine joining the NATO transatlantic defense alliance, which is considered a threat to Russia's security.