UNITED NATIONS, November 11. /TASS/. Russia and Ukraine should engage in negotiations, whenever such an opportunity presents itself, Associate Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General Stephanie Tremblay told reporters on Thursday.
"The secretary-general <…> expressed himself in the past quite a few times on his hopes for Ukraine and Russia to engage in discussions on peace talks," she said. "If there’s a window of opportunity, let’s seize it."
US Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley said during an event at The Economic Club of New York on Wednesday that he saw an opportunity for talks between Russia and Ukraine and urged the sides to take advantage of it. He commented on the situation around the pullback of Russian troops to the other side of the Dnieper River in the Kherson Region. In his opinion, Russia decided on this move "in order to preserve their force to reestablish defensive lines," although in spring these troops may resume their offensive. However, Milley said that "there’s also an opportunity here, a window of opportunity for negotiation."
On November 9, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu ordered that Russian troops be pulled from the right bank of the Dnieper River back to the left bank based on a suggestion by Army General Sergey Surovikin, chief of the Russian military operation in Ukraine. Surovikin pointed out that Russian troops were successfully thwarting Ukrainian attacks and one of the reasons for withdrawing was the risk that if areas downstream from the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant got flooded, Russian forces would be isolated. According to him, all civilians who wanted to leave the area - over 115,000 people - have been relocated from the right bank.