MOSCOW (Dispatches) - 
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that all proposals for a settlement in the 4-1/2-year-old war with Ukraine remained on the table, but Moscow still needed to assess what was in its best interests.
Putin also said Moscow had been ready to resume negotiations with Kyiv after last week’s Russian parliamentary elections, but Ukraine launched attacks on Moscow and hit polling stations.
Addressing journalists in St Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city, Putin said it was Ukraine that had launched provocative attacks and would now have to pay the price of a sustained response.
“They are the ones who started it. Everywhere, on every front. Are these playthings, child’s play?” Putin said in remarks broadcast on Russian television.
“They should therefore be made to feel Russia’s retaliatory strikes and understand that no provocative actions, no stirring up the situation to secure a result, will work. They’re only making things worse for themselves.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said attacks on Russia were a fair response to strikes on his country’s civilians and infrastructure, while calling for direct talks with Russia on resolving the war.
On Saturday, Russian attacks killed four people across Ukraine as the aerial war between Moscow and Kyiv intensifies.
Russia has struck Ukraine with cruise and ballistic missiles, glide bombs and jet-powered drones while front-line progress has slowed.
“It is essential that our partners not forget: Russia is escalating every single day. If the Russians have chosen to make their strikes even more brutal, the world must choose stronger responses to keep the war from spreading further,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Saturday.
He listed “numerous strikes on residential homes” in the cities of Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia, and the Odesa, Sumy, and Kharkiv regions.