HARARE, May 13. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to resume direct negotiations with Ukraine is a "surprisingly generous" offer, given that Russia is about to win, Rangarirai Shoko, the CEO of Zimbabwe's New Ziana News Agency, has told TASS.
"To the peace-loving majority in the world, President Vladimir Putin's peace offer to Ukraine is not only welcome, but surprisingly generous from a side on the verge of military victory," he said. "It clearly proves that Russia, from the beginning, was forced into the conflict against what it regards its brothers and sisters in Ukraine, contrary to propaganda from the West that President Putin was motivated by a desire to grab land as part of efforts to re-create the Soviet Union. How would a land grabber be so persistently offering to settle the conflict peacefully, diplomatically if the goal was to annex territory?"
The expert went on to say that the peace offer "has thrown Ukraine and its Western sponsors off-guard in that it offers something substantive as far as ending the war is concerned, compared to the phony 30-day ceasefire demand Kiev and the West had made at the weekend."
"The ceasefire demand was made for a ceasefire's sake with no goal aimed at, while President Putin's peace talks are meant to find common ground to end the conflict durably," Shoko said.
"It is clear that the West's ceasefire demand, like others in the past, is cover for Ukraine to re-arm and re-group its battered forces, and for the West to re-supply Kiev with new weapons," the expert continued. "It is an attempt to replay Minsk 1 and 2 dressed in peace propaganda. If Ukraine really valued an end to the bloodshed, why hasn’t it agreed to, and respected the various ceasefires that have been offered recently, the latest one only last week to commemorate victory over Nazi Germany?"
In his opinion, Kiev and the West’s insincere peace offers "dupe no one anymore either in Russia or the global south." There is growing understanding and acceptance around the world of Russia’s position on the conflict, the expert added.
Speaking to reporters in the Kremlin early on May 11, Russian President Vladimir Putin invited the Kiev authorities to resume the direct talks they broke off in 2022 without any preliminary conditions. He proposed to launch a dialogue on May 15 in Istanbul. The Russian leader recalled that Russia had declared ceasefires more than once but all of them, including the latest three-day V-Day truce, were violated by the Kiev regime.