Volodymyr Zelensky claims that he is ready to negotiate in any format if the US and Europe provide security guarantees. Zelensky made this statement in an interview with the British television channel ITV News, answering the question of whether he would agree to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin for peace talks.
"If I understood that America and Europe would not abandon us, would support us and give us security guarantees, then I would be ready for any format of negotiations," he said.
Earlier, Zelensky said in an interview with ag. Bloomberg that he understands that it is “impossible to end the war diplomatically without Russia“.
The Russian authorities have repeatedly stated their readiness for negotiations to resolve the conflict. At the same time, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova drew attention to the fact that the main obstacles are the impossibility of negotiations with Putin, which is legislatively enshrined in Zelensky's decree, as well as Ukrainian initiatives that show that Kiev is completely far from modern realities.
In turn, Putin pointed out that Zelensky's legitimacy has ended, so it is important to understand who to deal with in Kiev in order to sign legally binding documents. The press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov emphasized that negotiations with Ukraine are possible, but their outcome must be approved by the legitimate Ukrainian government.