Russia Readying For Peace Talks

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

MOSCOW/BEIJING/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – More video evidence emerged this weekend of Russia readying for peace talks with Ukraine as hundreds of thousands were killed and injured since Moscow invaded the country in February last year.

Speaking in China, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow is preparing to have talks on the “post-conflict settlement” of the war in Ukraine.

Shoigu spoke at the recent Beijing Xiangshan Forum, China’s most significant military diplomacy event.

He said Russia is also ready for talks on further “co-existence” with the West but added that Western countries should stop seeking the “strategic defeat” of his country.

The prospect of peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow has been raised multiple times since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in a war he still calls “a special military operation.”

Yet the defense minister’s remarks suggested that Moscow seeks an end to Europe’s bloodiest conflict in more than 80 years.

The Kremlin had specified a few conditions that were non-negotiable for Russia, including that Ukraine must accept the September 2022 annexation of four of its regions—Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.

CONTROVERSIAL REFERENDUMS

They were annexed after referendums deemed illegal by the international community, with voters casting ballots near gunmen.

Ukraine has said that any peace deal must invalidate the September 2022 annexations of its territory and that the Crimean Peninsula, which Putin annexed in 2014, must once again be considered part of Ukraine.

However, pressure is mounting on Kyiv to compromise with growing opposition within the United States and Europe against continuing spending billions on Ukraine’s military.

The European Union is also struggling to send enough ammunition to Ukraine.

Additionally, Kyiv’s counter-offensive has made slow progress with the armed conflict in several areas increasingly resembling the trenches fighting of World War One.

It remains unclear whether both sides could accept a United Nations peacekeeping mission overseeing territories captured by Moscow that would receive far-reaching autonomy as among compromises to end the bloodshed.

For now, with Christmas approaching, the region remains far from peaceful.

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