Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv鈥檚 offensive into the Kursk region was on-going.
Ukraine launched an unprecedented cross-border incursion into Russia鈥檚 Kursk region in August, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations.
Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia鈥檚 Eastern Economic Forum in the city of Vladivostok, Putin said Russia was ready for talks but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow鈥檚 and Kyiv鈥檚 negotiators reached in Istanbul in 2022, the terms of which were never made public.
鈥楢re we ready to negotiate with them? We have never refused to do so, but not on the basis of some ephemeral demands, but on the basis of those documents that were agreed and actually initialled in Istanbul,鈥� Putin said.
The Kremlin has repeatedly claimed Russia and Ukraine were on the verge of a deal in the spring of 2022, shortly after Moscow launched its offensive in Ukraine.
鈥榃e managed to reach an agreement, that is the whole point. The signature of the head of the Ukrainian delegation who initialled this document testifies to this, which means that the Ukrainian side was generally satisfied with the agreements reached,鈥� Putin said.
鈥業t did not come into force only because they were given a command not to do so, because the elites of the United States, Europe 鈥� some European countries 鈥� wanted to achieve a strategic defeat of Russia,鈥� Putin added.
Meanwhile, The death toll from a Russian missile strike on Ukraine鈥檚 city of Poltava rose to 55 with over 300 wounded, Ukrainian officials said Thursday.
The strike hit the Poltava military communications institute on Tuesday, according to Ukrainian officials who did not specify how many of the victims were military or civilians.
On Tuesday, the official toll stood at 51 people killed in one of one of the single deadliest strikes of the two-and-a-half-year war.
鈥楶oltava 鈥� the death toll from a Russian missile attack on an educational institution in the city has risen to 55. 328 people were injured,鈥� Ukraine鈥檚 emergency services said.
People could still be trapped under the rubble, it added, two days after two ballistic missiles hit the city, in central Ukraine.