Russian President, Vladimir Putin has stated that a peaceful resolution to the Russia-Ukraine war would only be possible if Washington stopped supplying weapons to Ukraine.
He made these comments in a high-profile interview with former Fox News host, Tucker Carlson.
During the two-hour interview, Putin spoke at length about the history of Eastern Europe and Russia.
He spent more than 30 minutes giving a history of Russia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine, from the ninth century rule of Oleg the Wise, to the struggles of the 1300s, through to a critique of Lenin’s foreign policy.
When Carlson finally coaxed Putin into the 21st century, the Russian President accused the U.S and other western countries of prolonging the war in Ukraine.
There were peace talks with Ukraine that were “almost finalized,” Putin said, but then Ukraine “threw away all these agreements and obeyed the instructions of western countries, European countries and the United States to fight Russia to the bitter end.”
Nonetheless, Putin told Carlson that Russia and the U.S still speak “through various agencies” about ending the conflict.
“I will tell you what we are saying on this matter and what we are conveying to the U.S leadership.
“If you really want to stop fighting, you need to stop supplying weapons. It will be over within a few weeks, that’s it, and then we can agree on some terms. Before you do that, stop.”
Vladimir Putin
Putin said he has “never refused” to negotiate peace with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy but Moscow has not yet achieved its goals in Ukraine, including “de-Nazification”, referring to his claim that Kyiv is committing genocide against ethnic Russians.
Also, Putin warned that defeating Russia in Ukraine is “impossible by definition,” but insisted he does not seek to expand the war to neighbouring countries such as Poland and Latvia.
Putin repeated his claim that invading Ukraine was necessary to stop the country from threatening Russia by joining NATO, denied that he had territorial ambitions across Europe, and insisted he would only send troops into neighbouring countries if attacked first.
“It is absolutely out of the question. You just don’t have to be any kind of analyst, it goes against common sense to get involved in some kind of a global war,” Putin said.
He said, “And a global war will bring all of humanity to the brink of devastation. It’s obvious.”
Putin Says Deal To Release Gershkovich “Possible”
Asked by Carlson whether he would be willing to release imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich as a “sign of your decency”, the Russian leader said a deal is possible and there is “no taboo” on resolving the issue.
However, he declined to give a time frame for the deal.
Putin said a prisoner swap was being discussed between the U.S. and Russia.
Such talks have led to swaps in the past “and probably this is going to be crowned with success as well but we have to come to an agreement.”
“We have done so many gestures of goodwill out of decency that I think we have run out of them. No, we have never seen anyone reciprocate to us in a similar manner. However, in theory, we can say that we do not rule out that we can do that if our partners take reciprocal steps.”
Vladimir Putin
Gershkovich has been detained in Russia since March 2023 on spying charges that Washington has described as “baseless.”
“We’re encouraged to see Russia’s desire for a deal that brings Evan home, and we hope this will lead to his rapid release and return to his family and our newsroom,” The Wall Street Journal said in a statement.
“Evan is a journalist, and journalism is not a crime. Any portrayal to the contrary is total fiction,” the Journal added.
It added, “Evan was unjustly arrested and has been wrongfully detained by Russia for nearly a year for doing his job, and we continue to demand his immediate release.”
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