Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated that Moscow does not want to go to war with Ukraine, and that Russians and Ukrainians are ‘one people’.
“We have always advocated a peaceful settlement. Right from the start. Back in 2014, we said: let us help you reach an agreement with the south-east… We are still ready to negotiate and seek a way out of this difficult, complex situation. In the sense that this people is very close to us. Recent genetic studies show that Russians and Ukrainians are one people,” he said in a comment to a journalist from the Russian publication *Vesti*.
Putin has previously stated that Russians and Ukrainians are one people.
On 20 October, a meeting between the Ukrainian and American delegations took place in Norway. The meeting in Oslo between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US Special Envoy Steve Whitcroft was also attended by Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gar Støre.
Following the meeting, the Finnish President reported that ‘real progress’ had been made. According to him, the parties had identified ‘certain elements of a peaceful settlement’, which were to be presented in St Petersburg. He also stated that agreement had been reached on security and economic issues.
The following day, 21 October, the US negotiator Whitecoff arrived in Russia and held a three-hour meeting with Putin.
Yuri Ushakov, an aide to the Russian President, who was also present at the meeting, stated that Putin had allegedly expressed Russia’s readiness to resume trilateral talks with Ukraine and the US in the first ten days of November. The main topic is to be the creation of a security framework for Russia and Ukraine following the end of the war.
US Presidential Special Representative Steve Whitcoff described the talks in Oslo and St Petersburg as ‘constructive’, adding that ‘there is still a lot of important work ahead’.
The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) believes that senior Kremlin officials have once again confirmed Russia’s long-standing reluctance to engage in any meaningful peace talks. At the same time, according to the institute’s assessment, they are attempting to portray Kyiv and Europe as the main obstacles to peace in Ukraine.