an hour agoPutin: We must resolve NATO issue in Ukraine now
Periskopi(4 years ago)
(4 years ago)Russia's President Vladimir Putin has said Western guarantees that Ukraine will not join NATO soon are not good enough, and that Russia “should resolve the issue now”. Speaking at the joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Putin also said Moscow is ready for talks with [...]
Speaking at the joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Putin also said Moscow is ready for talks with the US and NATO on restrictions on the deployment of missiles and military transparency, reports The Guardian.
Scholz said Ukraine's membership is not in order of the day, exploiting the possibility of joking at Putin's expense, according to the Financial Times' Max Seddon.
Today's Putin-Sultz meeting
Russia has pressured a veto of Ukraine's NATO membership since the Kremlin outlined a set of maximum security requirements last December, while Alliance members have repeatedly stressed their right to allow membership of other states.
Putin also called for the conflict in eastern Ukraine to be resolved through the peace process in Minsk.
Putin and Scholz joint press conference
According to journalist Mark MacKinnon, Scholz also referred to Minsk and the polls in Russian Duman, where MPs asked Putin to recognise the two self-declared separatist republics in eastern Ukraine. Scholz said that if that vote became a reality, the process [Minsk] would end.
The Minsk agreement, a stalled 2015 agreement between Moscow and Kiev, mediated by France and Germany, is also highlighted by French President Emmanuel Macron as a way out of the current stalemate.
