The official said that Putin agreed to send a group including representatives of the Ministries of Defense, Foreign Affairs and the Presidential Administration to the capital of Belarus for talks with their Ukrainian counterparts.
The presidential spokesman said that the decision responds to the proposal of the President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, to hold bilateral talks in search of a solution to the conflict.
For his part, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed that his government is ready to negotiate at any time, as soon as the Ukrainian Armed Forces stop offering resistance and lay down their arms.
“No one will attack them, no one will oppress them. Let them return home to their families and give the Ukrainian people the opportunity to determine their own destiny,” the foreign minister stressed.
Lavrov stressed at a press conference after holding talks with his counterpart from the Lugansk People’s Republic, Vladislav Deinego; and with the deputy foreign minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Sergei Peresada, that Russia was always in favor of the continuation of the negotiation process, and warned that the possibility of it was maintained until the end.
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