President Vladimir Putin says Russia is ready for talks with Ukraine but insisted that it must meet Moscow’s demands.
Mr Putin told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that Ukraine must agree to demilitarise, accept Moscow’s sovereignty over Crimea and surrender territory to Russia-backed rebels in the east, the Kremlin said in its readout of Friday’s call.
Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 following the ousting of the country’s former Moscow-friendly leaders and cast its support behind the rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Mr Putin recognised the separatist “people’s republics” as independent states just before he launched an invasion of Ukraine on February 24, citing their plea for military assistance.
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators on Thursday held the second of two rounds of talks, reaching a tentative agreement on setting up safe corridors to allow civilians to leave besieged Ukrainian cities and the delivery of humanitarian supplies.
They also agreed to keep talking on ways to negotiate a settlement, but Mr Putin’s tough demands make prospects for a compromise look dim.
Ukrainian negotiators said the parties may conduct another round of talks over the weekend.
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