Vladimir Putin has said Russia agreed with US representatives that it is ready to restart three-way talks on the war in Ukraine, Meduza reports. Speaking for the first time about his meeting with Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff, in an interview with state broadcaster VGTRK, he said the talks would be about security for both countries after a final peace deal, not a pause in fighting.
Asked about Volodymyr Zelensky's suggestion that the conflict could be frozen along the current front line, Putin said the land in question was historically Russian. He argued that Ukraine, not Russia, wanted the war to continue, and cited unnamed recent genetic research to claim that Russians and Ukrainians are a single people.
Meduza noted that it is not clear which studies he meant. The Kremlin has long used the "one people" argument to question Ukraine's statehood.
Source: Meduza
