Russian President Vladimir Putin met the UN Secretary-General across his famous long white table earlier today, telling Antonio Gutierrez that negotiations with Ukraine continue online.
He said he hopes for a “positive result” from the talks.
But Putin said he cannot sign security guarantees for Ukraine without deciding on territorial issues over Crimea and Sevastopol, annexed by Russia in 2014, and the Donbas – where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting Ukraine for eight years.
Putin noted that Russian and Ukrainian negotiators made what he described as a “serious breakthrough” in their talks in Istanbul last month.
“There was a provocation in the village of Bucha, which the Russian Army had nothing to do with,” Putin said.
During the meeting, Guterres criticized Russia’s military action in Ukraine as a flagrant violation of its neighbor’s territorial integrity. He also urged Russia to allow the evacuation of civilians trapped in the steel mill.
Putin responded by claiming that the Russian forces had offered humanitarian corridors but said the Ukrainian defenders of the plant were using civilians as shields and not allowing them to leave.
Ukrainian officials have said that up to 1,000 civilians have sheltered in the maze of underground tunnels there. They have repeatedly urged Russia to offer them a safe exit, but previous attempts at organizing evacuations have failed repeatedly.
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