Putin says Russia ready to negotiate over Ukraine

WORLD, Dec. 25 (YPA) – President Vladimir Putin said Russia was ready to negotiate with all parties involved in the war in Ukraine but that Kyiv and its Western backers had refused to engage in talks.

There is, thus far, little end in sight to the war.

The Kremlin says it will fight until all its aims are achieved while Kyiv says it will not rest until every Russian soldier is ejected from all of its territory, including Crimea which Russia annexed in 2014.

“We are ready to negotiate with everyone involved about acceptable solutions, but that is up to them — we are not the ones refusing to negotiate, they are,” President Putin told Rossiya 1 state television in an interview aired on December 25.

He said his country was moving “in the right direction” in Ukraine as the West, led by the United States, was trying to divide Russia.

“We are acting in the right direction, we are protecting our national interests, the interests of our citizen, of our people,” Putin said.

E.M