Putin says Ukraine has no desire to negotiate preliminary peace settlement

President Vladimir Putin has said that Ukraine does not wish to seek a peace treaty with Russia and does not wish to fulfill the terms of a March agreement.

Putin told reporters following a visit to Iran that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were proposing to arbitrate between Russia and Ukraine, which Moscow invaded in late February, Reuters reported.

"There were well-known negotiations in Istanbul, and when we finally reached an agreement, it only remained to initiate it," he told CNBC reporter, claiming that Russian forces had withdrawn from Kyiv to create these conditions for a deal, but that the government in Kyiv "refused to comply" with the terms of the deal.

“The final result depends, of course, not on the mediators, but on the desire of the contracting parties to fulfill the agreements reached. And we see today that the Kyiv authorities have no such desire,” Putin said. 

In March, negotiations took underway between both parties presenting ideas but with no progress. At the time, Ukraine said that it would not relinquish any land to Russia as part of any future agreement.

Picture Credits: Reuters 

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