Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin pushed back at prospects for European leaders to help negotiate an end to his war in Ukraine, dismissing them as mediators and pointedly insisting on a peace deal he said had been worked out with US President Donald Trump in Alaska, Bloomberg reports, according to UNN.
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"How can the European Union or individual EU countries serve as mediators when they are directly assisting the country with which we are in an armed conflict?" Putin said at a meeting with foreign media in St. Petersburg late Thursday. "How can they be mediators? Mediation implies neutrality."
According to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, officials from Europe's three largest economies—Germany, France, and the United Kingdom—have discussed the possibility of holding talks involving Russia and Ukraine. They also discussed the issue with their Ukrainian counterparts, the sources said.
Putin reiterated that he had reached an agreement with President Trump on what he described as a compromise peace deal at their summit in Anchorage last August. EU states could play a role in ending the war "not by supplying weapons, but by trying to convince the Kyiv authorities to agree to the compromises we are talking about."
US-led negotiations with Ukraine and Russia have stalled as Trump has focused on the war with Iran. With Moscow's troops suffering mounting casualties amid a battlefield stalemate and Russia's economy under increasing pressure, the three European nations see an opportunity to potentially bring Putin to the negotiating table, sources said.
Late Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy published an open letter to Putin, calling on him to meet directly to settle the war.
Enough war - Zelenskyy writes open letter to Putin proposing a meeting04.06.26, 21:38
Zelenskyy said that both Europe and the US must be part of the process to end the war, which is now in its fifth year.
Putin said Russia wants to know who could represent Europe in any negotiations, saying that "it still has to be people who can be trusted." He again raised the potential candidacy of former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who he said is criticized for his closeness to Putin.
"He is not a friend of Putin," the Kremlin leader said. "He is a German statesman—and, in my opinion, one of the best, because he has his own position and the courage to defend it."
Sybiha mocked the Kremlin's idea to make Schröder a "negotiator" from Europe22.05.26, 17:24
Putin insisted that Russian troops are continuing their offensive in Ukraine. After Russia launched sustained massive airstrikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian regions in recent weeks, "he also threatened to potentially intensify attacks with 'Oreshnik' hypersonic missiles," the publication writes.