Russia has praised the resumption of contact with the United States and claimed the success of its invasion force in Ukraine had made the talks possible, while ruling out any withdrawal from occupied territory as part a peace deal with Kyiv.
US and Russian diplomats met in Istanbul on Thursday as part of a rapprochement pursued by US president Donald Trump, as top Ukrainian military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said his forces had slowed Russia’s advance in the “most dangerous areas” of the eastern front.
“I note that the first contacts with the new American administration inspire certain hopes. There is a reciprocal mood to work to restore inter-governmental ties and gradually resolve the huge number of systemic and strategic problems that have built up in the world’s security architecture,” Russian president Vladimir Putin told officers of his country’s FSB security service.
“It is important that our current partners show pragmatism, a realistic view of things and reject many stereotypes, so-called rules and ... ideological cliches of their predecessors, which, in fact, led to a crisis in the entire system of international relations and ... began to destroy the western community itself from within,” he added.
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Mr Putin also told the FSB – which he led after serving in the Soviet-era KGB and before becoming Russian president 25 years ago – to prevent any attempts to sabotage US-Russia talks that began in Saudi Arabia last week.
“We understand that not everyone is happy with the resumption of Russia-US contacts. Some western elites are still determined to maintain instability in the world, and these forces will try to disrupt or compromise the dialogue that has begun. We must ... use all the possibilities of diplomacy and the special services to disrupt such attempts,” he said.
Mr Putin claimed the “dynamic changes in the international landscape” were largely a result of “the courage and fortitude of our armed forces, our heroes” fighting in Ukraine, and said Russia sought “a system that will truly ensure balance and mutual consideration of interests, a system of indivisible European and global security”.
Russia launched an all-out invasion of pro-western Ukraine three years ago and now controls about 20 per cent of its territory. Moscow demands that Kyiv accept the permanent loss of five regions that it claims as its own – four of which are not fully occupied – and abandon all hope of joining Nato.
“The territories that have become subjects of the [Russian] Federation and are enshrined in the constitution of our country are an integral part of Russia – this is an absolutely indisputable and inarguable fact,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
As Russian and US diplomats talked in Turkey about expanding the operations of their embassies in each other’s capitals, Mr Peskov said swift results were unlikely.
“No one expects solutions to come easily and quickly. The problem at hand is too complex and neglected. But with the two countries' political will, with a willingness to hear and listen to each other, I think we will be able to get through this working process,” he said.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy is expected to meet Mr Trump in Washington on Friday to sign a deal on joint exploitation of Ukrainian rare earths and other natural resources. France said on Thursday that it was also interested in Ukrainian raw materials and had been discussing the issue with Kyiv since last October.
After visiting eastern Ukraine, Col Gen Syrskyi said his forces had taken steps “to improve the interaction of military units and divisions, and a regrouping of troops has been carried out, which has slowed the enemy’s advance in the most dangerous areas.”
