MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Russia was not opposed to Europe’s involvement in Russia-U.S. peace talks aimed at settling the conflict in Ukraine, but noted that Brussels had long rejected any dialogue with Moscow.
Putin, interviewed on Russian state television, also said U.S. President Donald Trump was approaching the Russia-Ukraine conflict rationally and not emotionally.
Russia and the United States held an initial round of talks on Ukraine last week in Saudi Arabia. Ukraine and Kyiv’s European allies were not invited, sparking objections from both.
Putin said it was logical for Europe to take part in talks on a settlement to the three-year-old conflict.
“Their participation in the negotiating process is needed. We never rejected that, we held constant discussions with them,” Putin said.
“At times, on the pretext of inflicting on Russia a battlefield defeat, they were the ones who refused contact with us. If they want to come back, that’s fine.”
He said negative reactions to the talks in Riyadh had been “emotional and void of any kind of logic”.
“And why? Because in order to resolve complex and difficult questions, including the Ukrainian issue, Russia and the United States must make the first step. And that first step must be devoted to raising the level of trust between our countries. And that is what we did in Riyadh.”
The Ukraine conflict had been discussed, he said, “but not in its essence. We simply agreed that we get to it. And here we are not rejecting the participation of European countries.”
Putin also said he approved a suggestion that Russia and the United States could discuss deep cuts — up to 50% — in military spending.
“We could come to an agreement with the United States. We’re not against that,” Putin said.
“The idea seems like a good one to me. The United States reduces theirs by 50% and we reduce ours by 50%. And China could join us later if it wishes.”
And Putin dismissed any notion that Trump’s sharp alteration of Washington’s policy on Ukraine, including criticism of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and suggestions that Kyiv might not recover all lost territory, was based on emotion.
Trump, he said, was acting logically and free of the constraints of promises to Ukraine made by European leaders.
“Unlike them, the new president of the United States has his hands free from shackles that don’t allow you to move forward,” he said,
“He is moving in a straightforward manner and without particular constraints. He is in a unique position: he doesn’t just say what he thinks, he says what he wants. This is the privilege of the leader of one of the major powers.”
(Reporting by Anton Kolodyazhnyy, Maxim Rodionov, Anastasia Lyrchikova, Darya Korsunskaya and Ron Popeski; Editing by Leslie Adler and Sandra Maler)
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