The Kremlin said Friday it is ready to hold talks with Ukrainian officials, but only if the Ukrainian forces stand down – an offer that experts derided as a "farce" and came as Russian troops were bearing down on Ukraine's capital, Kyiv.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to send a delegation to Belarus to meet with Ukrainian officials. This came after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he is willing to discuss a non-aligned status for the country, which could mean dropping his country's long-held bid to join NATO.
However, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Ukraine must put down its arms before any talks happen, according to Russia's state-controlled TASS News Agency.
"We are ready to hold talks at any moment, once the Ukrainian Armed Forces respond to our president’s call, end their resistance and lay down their arms," Lavrov said.
"This is a farce," Mattia Nelles, a Ukraine and Russia expert with the Wilson Center, a Washington-based think tank, wrote in a tweet. He noted the Ukraine is unlikely to accept such conditions.
Alexander Lanoszka, an expert on European security at the University of Waterloo in Canada, said Moscow's proposal seemed preposterous.
“I am not sure why Kyiv would ever agree to send a delegation to enemy territory when Russia plausibly wants to decapitate Ukraine's leadership and impose regime change,” he tweeted.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping said he had spoken with Putin Friday and the Russian president "expressed Russia’s willingness to have high-level negotiation with Ukraine," according to a statement on the Chinese Foreign Ministry's website.
Russian military forces on Friday continued the second day of its invasion of Ukraine, as forces approached the capital city of Kyiv.
Putin on Thursday said Russia was launching its special military operation after declaring two breakaway districts in Ukraine as sovereign. He accused the Ukrainian government of being neo-Nazis who threatened those districts and Russia's own defense. “They left us no choice," he said.
Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia's foreign intelligence agency, echoed that on Russian state television Friday, The New York Times reported. “Russia cannot allow Ukraine to become a dagger raised above us in the hands of Washington,” he said. “The special military operation will restore peace in Ukraine within a short amount of time and prevent a potential larger conflict in Europe.”
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy sought talks and support from Western countries. "When bombs fall on Kyiv, it happens in Europe, not just in Ukraine," he said. "When missiles kill our people, they kill all Europeans."
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Contributing: The Associated Press
Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @mikesnider.
