MOSCOW (Dispatches) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said negotiations on Ukraine had stalled, while dismissing reports that Russia would launch a new round of mobilization after the State Duma election as “nonsense.”
Putin made the remarks at a press conference Tuesday night after attending a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, according to the Kremlin website. He said Russia supports negotiations based on concrete substance and would welcome any efforts that could make a practical contribution to ending the conflict.
Putin said Russia hopes to achieve a lasting and comprehensive peace in Ukraine and across Europe, adding that Moscow is ready to negotiate with anyone willing to participate. Russia respects the positions of countries that support a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
On battlefield developments, Putin said drones remain a major challenge for Russian forces. Despite difficulties, Putin said Russian troops are accelerating their offensive and advancing according to plan in the Donetsk region, where they took control of 15 settlements in August. He is confident of victory but avoids setting any concrete timeline for an end to the conflict, stressing that war is cruel and hard to forecast.
Putin said any military facilities in Ukraine, including those linked to the United Kingdom, are legitimate targets for Russian strikes.
He also denied reports of a new mobilization effort to call up civilians for military service following the State Duma election later this month, dismissing such claims as an “information warfare” campaign against Russia. ■
On Wednesday Russia vowed to head off any disruption to civil aviation after a warning by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that its drones had made Russian airspace dangerous to use.
Zelenskiy warned airlines and insurance firms on Tuesday that the presence of Ukrainian drones as it responded to Russian attacks meant “the war started by Russia is closing its own skies”. He said he was not targeting civil aviation.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said it had also officially notified the International Civil Aviation Organization that Russian airspace was not safe.
While European and U.S. carriers do not fly over Russia due to the war that erupted when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the airspace is used by other airlines from countries such as China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and other Persian Gulf states.