Reuters reported that on April 21, for the first time since the conflict broke out in 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed holding bilateral talks with the Kiev government, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in the context of the US warning of withdrawing from peace efforts if there is no progress.
In an interview with Russian national television, President Putin affirmed that Moscow "has a positive attitude" towards all peace initiatives, and expressed hope that Kiev will have similar goodwill. However, Mr. Putin also noted that fighting resumed after the 30-hour ceasefire on the occasion of Christmas that he announced on April 19.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later confirmed that Putin wanted to hold talks and exchanges with Ukraine.
On the Ukrainian side, President Zelensky said Kiev was ready to discuss a ceasefire on civilian targets and revealed a meeting with Washington would take place on April 23 in London (UK).
The statement was made by Mr. Zelensky on the evening of April 21 (local time), after the Russian President opened talks on direct negotiations. Mr Zelensky said that the main goal of the upcoming meeting with the US is to "promoting an unconditional ceasefire" based on the proposal not to attack civilian targets if Moscow accepts.
Both the US and Ukraine have previously described the proposal as a 30-day ceasefire.
According to Reuters, this is seen as the sequel to last week's meeting in Paris (France), where Western countries met to discuss finding a solution to the more than three-year conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
