Russia ready to hold negotiations with Ukraine to restore peace, says Upper house speaker

Amid the ongoing relentless war between Russia and Ukraine, Moscow's upper parliament house speaker said Russia is ready to hold negotiations with Kyiv to restore peace in the region. The major development came as Speaker Valentina Matviyenko, who was on an official visit to Mozambique, met Maputo's President Filipe Nyusi on Tuesday. While speaking at the meeting, Russian News Agency- TASS, reported that the speaker said the Putin administration is open to talks with Ukraine and signing agreements that would lead to peace.

She said that the Russian government is ready to solve the issue diplomatically and added a will for this is needed on both sides. However, she claimed that the Zelenskyy administration has shown no interest in resolving the issue. "We are open for talks. I totally share your position that diplomatic, peaceful solutions are needed. But will for that is needed on both sides. We reiterate that we are ready for talks, for signing agreements that would stop the civil war in Ukraine and lead to peace, but we see no reaction from Kyiv," TASS quoted the upper house speaker as saying. 

According to Matviyenko, before the onset of the "special military operation" in Ukraine, Moscow had been in talks with Western partners and the Biden administration demanding shared, indivisible security be ensured on the European continent. She claimed Moscow did not receive an adequate response from either side. Further, while explaining other aspects of Russia initiating a "military operation" against Kyiv, she alleged Ukraine always wanted to be a nuclear-powered state and added Russia had started accumulating offensive weapons to "attack the Donetsk and Lugansk regions". "Putin had no other way out, no other choice to ensure our security," she stressed.

'I don't bite. What are you afraid of?': Zelenskyy

Notably, since the war started in mid-February this year, three rounds of peace talks were held between the Russian and Ukrainian diplomats. However, the meeting did not yield the desired results. On Several occasions, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed to his Russian counterpart to hold negotiations but the same has not been echoed by President Vladimir Putin.

On March 3, Zelenskyy, during a press conference, called for Putin to meet him, salting the proposal with sarcasm. "Sit down with me to negotiate, just not at 30 meters," he had said, apparently referring to recent photos of Putin sitting at one end of an extremely long table when he met with other world leaders in the Kremlin. "I don't bite. What are you afraid of?" Zelenskyy said at a news conference. 

Image: AP/Twitter/@State_Duma