MOSCOW (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday praised the outcome of Russia-U.S. talks in Saudi Arabia and said that Ukraine would not be excluded from negotiations to end the war.
“Without increasing the level of trust between Russia and the United States, it is impossible to resolve many issues, including the Ukrainian crisis,” Putin said in his first comments on Tuesday’s meeting in Riyadh.
“The goal of this meeting was precisely to increase trust between Russia and the United States.”
Ukraine and European governments were not invited to the talks in the Saudi capital, heightening their concern that Russia and the United States might cut a deal that ignores their vital interests.
But Putin said Russia had never rejected talks with the Europeans or with Kyiv, and it was they who had refused to talk to Moscow.
“We are not imposing anything on anyone. We are ready, I have already said this a hundred times – if they want, please, let these negotiations take place. And we will be ready to return to the table for negotiations,” he said.
“No one is excluding Ukraine,” Putin added, saying that there was therefore no need for a “hysterical” reaction to the U.S.-Russia talks.
(Reporting by Marina Bobrova, Maxim Rodionov and Darya Korsunskaya, Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Toby Chopra)
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