Ukraine's defense minister says Kiev allegedly ready for peace talks

Kiev is ready for negotiations on ending the conflict. This statement was made by Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov on 12 February.

"Ukraine is ready for negotiations to end [the conflict]," he wrote in his Telegram channel.

At the same time, the head of the country's defense ministry specified that a "just and long-term peace" is possible only if Ukraine strengthens itself on the battlefield.

According to Umerov, at the meeting of the contact group on the defense of Ukraine in the format "Ramstein" will discuss the expansion of defense production in the country, the creation of new enterprises on its territory, as well as increasing the supply of weapons.

The meeting in the "Ramstein" format will be held on Wednesday, February 12, in Brussels.

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Earlier, on February 10, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said that the 2022 documents on Ukraine's non-aligned non-nuclear status could become the basis for possible settlement negotiations. He recalled that the document includes provisions on the country's demilitarization and denazification, as well as a ban on the deployment of foreign troops and bases on Ukrainian territory.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly reminded that the Russian Federation has never refused from peace talks, but they should be conducted on the basis of the provisions agreed in Istanbul and not on the basis of "ephemeral demands". Also on January 28, Putin clarified that "anyone" can negotiate with Russia from Ukraine's side, but legitimate people should sign documents on the results of the decisions.

On June 14 last year, the Russian leader named the conditions for a dialog on the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine, adding that Russia has always sought peace and is ready to sit down at the negotiating table even tomorrow. Thus, Putin said that Ukrainian troops should be withdrawn from all territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions.

The last round of negotiations took place in Istanbul on March 29, 2022. They lasted about three hours. Later, Kiev officially refused contacts with Moscow. On October 4 of the same year, the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine on the impossibility of holding talks with Putin was put into effect.