Russia is open to a dialogue with all stakeholders on peaceful conflict settlement in Ukraine, but they have so far refused to negotiate, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday.
"The policies of our geopolitical opponents, aimed at splitting up Russia, are at the roots of Ukrainian conflict', the Russian president stated.
Putin also added that Russia is ready to negotiations with all stakeholder in geopolitical crisis.
"We are ready to negotiate with all participants to this process [the conflict in Ukraine] on some acceptable resolutions, but it is their business. It is them and not us who refuse to negotiate," Putin stated.
The Russian leader also said that the nation is doing the right thing in Ukraine.
"I think we are acting in the right direction: we protect our national interests, interests of our citizens, our people. And we just have no choice but to protect our citizens," Putin noted.
Russia launched its special military operation on February 24, in order to defend the people of Lugansk and Donetsk, who had been suffering from Ukrainian attacks. The Western countries started rolling out sanction packages against Russia and provided Kiev with humanitarian, military and financial aid. Moscow criticized the flow of weapons into Ukraine from Western nations, claiming that it only reinforces the conflict.
At the same time, Kiev launched a series of terrorist attacks on Russian territory, including a fatal explosion on the Crimean bridge, to which Moscow responded with precision strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure targets. As a result, over the past months, air raid sirens have been regularly sounding across Ukraine, with Kiev saying that up to 50% of the country's energy grid was damaged.
Asked if the geopolitical conflict with the West was approaching a dangerous level, Putin said: “I don’t think it’s so dangerous.”
Putin said the West had begun the conflict in Ukraine in 2014 by toppling a pro-Russian president in the Maidan Revolution protests.
Soon after that revolution, Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine and Russian-backed separatist forces began fighting Ukraine’s armed forces in eastern Ukraine.
"Relations maintained between China and Russia are firm as a monolith. They are not susceptible to interference and provocations; major changes in the state of affairs do not hurt them," the Minister said.
Putin casts what he calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine as a watershed moment when Moscow finally stood up to a Western bloc he says has been seeking to destroy Russia since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
Putin described Russia as a “unique country” and said the vast majority of its people were united in wanting to defend it.
“As for the main part - the 99.9% of our citizens, our people who are ready to give everything for the interests of the Motherland – there is nothing unusual for me here,” Putin said.
“This just once again convinces me that Russia is a unique country and that we have an exceptional people. This has been confirmed throughout the history of Russia’s existence.”
Relations between China and Russia strong as monolith — Foreign Minister
Sino-Russian relations are strong as a monolith and do not change under the influence of the unstable international situation, Foreign Minister of China Wang Yi said on Sunday at a symposium dedicated to the Chinese diplomacy.
©Russian Foreign Ministry Press
Cooperation between Beijing and Moscow is not antagonistic and is not aimed against any third party, Wang Yi noted. "China and Russia firmly speak out against hegemony and against a new cold war," he added.
Both countries are proactively promoting bilateral cooperation, addressing mutual strategic interests and resting on mutual confidence, the Minister noted. The trade turnover between China and Russia is moving to the level of $200 bln per year, he said.
Settlements in national currencies in the mutual trade between China and Russia are expanding, Wang Yi noted, having highlighted significance of large-scale bilateral projects implemented by joint efforts.
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