Speaking at the G20 Parliamentary Speakers’ Summit meeting on Thursday, Oct. 6, in Indonesia, Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko suggested to the Ukrainian delegation that the two nations start peace talks.
“Let’s sit down at the negotiating table today, at the G20 venue. The Russian parliament and the Ukrainian parliament. Let’s try to understand each other, find an agreement,” Matvienko is heard saying in a video that has been uploaded to the council’s official Telegram channel.
According to Russia’s TASS news agency, Matvienko was responding to a claim of Russian aggression in Ukraine made by a Ukrainian delegate. The accusation was described by the speaker as “unfounded” and “unsubstantiated.”
After the meeting, Matvienko told reporters that the negotiations she had suggested could not be about Russia annexing Ukraine’s occupied territories. “We’re willing to put an end to further military action in Ukraine, but on the terms offered by Russia,” she continued.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday, Sep.30, that Kyiv would not negotiate with Russia as long as President Vladimir Putin was in power.
“Ukraine will not hold any negotiations with Russia as long as Putin is the president of the Russian Federation. We will negotiate with the new president,” Zelensky said.
His remarks come after Putin signed treaties to annex four Moscow-occupied Ukrainian regions, Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia, at a grand ceremony in the Kremlin.
The pro-Kremlin leaders of the annexed territories claimed the regions voted in favor of becoming part of Russia in referendums that Western capitals and international organizations did not recognize.
