The White House reiterated on Friday that only Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was in a position to approve the opening of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, rejecting any notion of US pressure on Kyiv.
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“We all agree that a negotiated diplomatic solution is the best possible outcome, barring a decision by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to withdraw his troops” from Ukraine, the spokesperson told reporters on Friday. of the National Security Council, John Kirby.
“We also said that it was up to President Zelensky to say if and when he would be ready for negotiations and what form those negotiations would take; and no one in the United States is probing it, pressing it or pushing it to the negotiating table,” he said, especially in view of the massive Russian strikes targeting civilian infrastructure. in Ukraine.
The official was being asked about remarks by the US Chief of Staff, General Mark Milley, who twice recently said there was a possible window of opportunity to start discussions for a political solution to the conflict.
“The Russians are really in a bad place, so you want to negotiate at a time when you are in a position of strength and your opponent is in a position of weakness,” he said Thursday.
US media recently reported that some senior officials were beginning to encourage Ukraine to consider talks, which President Zelensky has so far refused.
The United States has been the main provider of military aid to Kyiv since the start of the conflict on February 24.
At the G20 on Tuesday, the head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov had deemed “unrealistic” the Ukrainian conditions for starting talks to end the war.
Ukraine demands the withdrawal of Russian troops from its territory and the return of its territorial integrity, while Moscow claimed the annexation of four Ukrainian regions at the end of September, in addition to the Crimean peninsula annexed in 2014.