Putin's spokesman says Moscow will ‘continue' invasion while blaming Ukraine for not being ‘ready' for peace
A Kremlin spokesman said in a new interview that Ukraine is to blame for a failure to make progress in peace talks and vowed that the Russian offensive would 'continue' - despite Kyiv's support for a U.S.-backed deal.
With their respective nations still yet to reach a formal ceasefire, Ukraine and Russia's ambassadors appeared for dueling interviews Sunday on ABC News.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Vladimir Putin, spoke to ABC's Martha Raddatz in Moscow.
'Ukraine is trying to escape from negotiations,' he claimed.
Raddatz interjected: 'Ukraine says they're ready for a ceasefire right now, a 30 days ceasefire.'
'But they're not ready for immediate negotiations,' Peskov said. 'President Putin is doing whatever is possible to solve the problem, to achieve a settlement through peaceful and diplomatic means. But having no peaceful and democratic means at hand, we have to continue military operation.'
He would go on to say that U.S. and European weapon shipments to Kyiv would need to be halted for those talks to take place.
"Otherwise, it will be advantage for Ukraine. Ukraine will continue their total mobilization, bringing new troops to front line. Ukraine will use this period to train new military personnel and to give a rest to their existing ones," said Peskov. "So why should we grant such an advantage to Ukraine?"
Ukraine is "not ready for immediate negotiations," he insisted.
Separately on ABC News, Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova sat down in-studio for an interview with Raddatz. She shot down Peskov's assertion that Ukraine was refusing the possibility of talks beginning at once.
'President Zelensky today already said that, yes, Ukraine is ready to negotiate,' Markarova said. Ukraine has set a temporary ceasefire as a condition for talks to take place. Russia, meanwhile, said that it would not accept the presence of European peacekeeping forces.
'We have heard loud and clear from President Trump that ceasefires should be full and unconditional. And we have heard from other European leaders,' she continued. 'Nobody wants peace more than Ukraine. The question of the day is whether Russia wants it.'
President Donald Trump spent much of 2024 hammering his two opponents, Joe Biden and later Kamala Harris, for the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Palestine conflicts, which he says started under their watch. The 47th president claimed often that Putin would not have dared to launch an invasion of Ukraine in 2022 had he been in office, and boasted as well that he could end the eastern European conflict in a matter of hours.
Those hours have stretched into weeks as Trump has come to publicly grumble that Russia may be stringing his administration along in the hopes of securing a more advantageous position on the battlefield. The U.S. president has threatened damaging sanctions against Moscow if the conflict continues, but has yet to act on those threats.
After an Oval Office blow-up between the two men earlier this year, Trump met Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of Pope Francis's funeral in the Vatican in late April. Soon after the meeting, he posted his suspicions of Russia's aims on Truth Social.
'There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days,' Trump wrote. 'It makes me think that maybe he doesn't want to stop the war, he's just tapping me along.'
On Sunday, Trump condemned the 'bloodbath' in another Truth Social posting and urged Zelensky to accept an invitation for talks in Turkey with Putin scheduled for this coming Thursday. Zelensky, along with a coalition of NATO leaders, presented the U.S. with a pledge on Saturday stating that Ukraine would accept an immediate temporary ceasefire and to begin talks with Russia. Putin, in his response, accepted an invitation to negotiate while refusing to agree to an immediate ceasefire.
'President Putin of Russia doesn't want to have a Cease Fire Agreement with Ukraine, but rather wants to meet on Thursday, in Turkey, to negotiate a possible end to the BLOODBATH. Ukraine should agree to this, IMMEDIATELY,' Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. At least they will be able to determine whether or not a deal is possible, and if it is not, European leaders, and the U.S., will know where everything stands, and can proceed accordingly!'
'I'm starting to doubt that Ukraine will make a deal with Putin, who's too busy celebrating the Victory of World War ll, which could not have been won (not even close!) without the United States of America,' he continued. 'HAVE THE MEETING, NOW!!!'
Zelensky accepted, responding in his own post to Twitter.
'We await a full and lasting ceasefire, starting from tomorrow, to provide the necessary basis for diplomacy,' he said. 'There is no point in prolonging the killings. And I will be waiting for Putin in Türkiye on Thursday. Personally. I hope that this time the Russians will not look for excuses.'
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This was a transformative moment in modern warfare and it will be studied for years to come. The reason that Senators Graham and Blumenthal must get their legislation through Congress is because people will continue to needlessly die unless Russia is stopped. Russia will not stop unless they run out of troops (unlikely), ammunition (also unlikely), or money (the most likely possibility). When everyone in Russia feels the collective cost and pain of this war, there may be enough pressure to topple President Putin or force him to change his approach. In the 2012 movie, The Hobbit, Gandalf, a protagonist wizard declared, "Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love." Few of us have the power to end a war, but God created all of us with the ability to display our love through action. 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