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Ukrainian president again offers Putin to hold talks

Vladimir Zelensky stressed that he was ready for the talks in "any format"

KIEV, February 17. /TASS/. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky again has offered to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to hold talks.

"Diplomacy will begin when we sit down at the negotiating table," he told reporters, as RBC-Ukraine quoted him as saying on Thursday. The Ukrainian leader stressed that he was ready for the talks in "any format."

He added that he has been ready "for direct talks for two and a half years." "As soon as Russia publically says that it is ready to talk about de-escalation, about bilateral relations, believe me, every time we take note of those remarks in the media and every time after that we are making an inquiry to Russia in one way or another to hold this meeting in one or another format. Besides the public stance, in reality they are not ready to interact with us," the Ukrainian leader asserted.

Earlier, he stated that he did not rule out direct talks with the Russian leader Vladimir Putin. That said, Putin noted that if this means discussing problems around Donbass, then the Ukrainian leadership should above all meet with the leaders of the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics. According to Putin, this is precisely where the settlement in Donbass should start, and only then these issues may be discussed with any other third country, including Russia. In his turn, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia is ready for Zelensky’s visit in order to discuss the normalization of bilateral relations but if the Ukrainian leader intends to review the Donbass issues, it is necessary to address the Contact Group on the appropriate subject.

In his turn, on Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Kiev repeatedly offered to hold a meeting between Putin and Zelensky yet never specified its purpose. According to the Kremlin official, Moscow’s stance is that the subject of Donbass should be discussed "with Donbass residents".

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