MOSCOW (Dispatches) - Moscow remains willing to negotiate a resolution of the Ukraine conflict, in which both sides would make compromises, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
Putin was asked how his government envisioned the end of the hostilities with Ukraine during a late night interview on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, which Russian media released on Friday morning.
“Any outcome should be favorable to Russia, and I say that directly,” he said. That said, Moscow does not rule out compromises on its part as long as they are “rational,” the Russian leader added. Unfortunately, Ukraine’s unwillingness to negotiate renders moot any discussions of what Moscow would be willing to offer.
Putin said Moscow had recently received a proposal from Ankara to discuss a possible deal, which an aide to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said was coming from Kyiv.
“We agreed to it, and the next day Ukrainian leader publicly announced that he will not negotiate anything,” the president said. “This is irrational behavior, which is hard to predict. No plans can be based on this foundation. So there is no sense in discussing whether we would reach an agreement and what it would be,” Putin explained.
The remarks came as a follow-up to a long press conference that Putin gave on the final day of the BRICS gathering, during which he mentioned communications with an unnamed Turkish official and Kyiv’s apparent U-turn on it. The message was relayed by Ibrahim Kalin, who currently heads the Turkish intelligence service MIT, Putin revealed in the interview.
Putin said that it was Russia’s business whether or not it decided to use North Korean troops and said that if Ukraine wanted to join NATO then Moscow could do what it wanted to ensure its own security.
The United States said that it had seen evidence that North Korea has sent 3,000 troops to Russia for possible deployment in Ukraine, a move that the West is casting as a significant escalation of the Ukraine war.
Ukraine’s military intelligence service said that the first North Korean units trained in Russia had been deployed in the Kursk region, a Russian border area where Ukrainian forces took a chunk of Russian land in August.
“When we have to decide something, we will decide... but it is our sovereign decision whether we will apply it, whether we will not, whether we need it,” Putin told Russian state television. “This is our business.”
Putin said that the West repeatedly said that it was up to Ukraine how it ensured its security - “with or without NATO.”
“The sooner they realize the futility of such an approach in relations with Russia, the better it will be for everyone, and perhaps, above all, for themselves,” Putin said.
Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a comprehensive strategic partnership, agreement during Putin’s visit to Pyongyang in June.
Kyiv’s officials said on Friday that Russia sent two waves of drones at the Ukrainian capital overnight in its 15th air attack on the city.
More than a dozen drones were downed over the city during the strike, which lasted around four hours, city military administrator Serhiy Popko said on Telegram.
He added that authorities had not received any reports of injuries and that debris had ignited a fire that was later extinguished.
Overall, Ukrainian air defenses destroyed 36 out of 63 drones launched overnight by Russia over various parts of Ukraine, Kyiv’s air force said.