Friday 23 April 2021
But not in ukraine
Putin ready to meet Zelensky
Russian troops should have given way on the border with eastern Ukraine, and Russian President Putin is indicating that he is ready to talk to his Ukrainian counterpart. However, he does not want to leave Moscow for this. And they excluded a subject altogether.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown himself ready to meet his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky – not in eastern Ukraine as Zelensky suggested, but in the Russian capital Moscow. “When it comes to developing bilateral relations, please. We will get the President of Ukraine in Moscow at any time which is convenient for him,” Putin said, according to the Interfax Agency.
Against the backdrop of the tense situation in eastern Ukraine, Zelensky first proposed a meeting with the Kremlin chief in the conflict zone of Dombas. In a speech in Russian, the 43-year-old said, “I am ready to go ahead and propose a meeting at any point in the Ukrainian Donbas.” Putin then said that if Jelenski wanted to discuss the problems in Donbas, he would have to meet with the leaders of the eastern Ukrainian separatist regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.
For nearly seven years, parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions along the Russian border have been controlled by pro-Russian rebels. According to UN estimates, more than 13,000 people have died since the conflict in 2014. A peace plan has been agreed in 2015.
The deployment of a large-scale Russian army near the Ukrainian border and on the annexed Crimea peninsula has raised fears of escalating tensions in the region over the past few weeks. Now Russia has announced the withdrawal of several military units. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said during the visit to Crimea, according to the Tass Agency, that the troops had passed their defense readiness test and would return to their permanent stations from this Friday.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the transfer of Russian troops. “Tensions are reduced according to the reduction in the number of troops on our border,” Selensky wrote on Twitter.
