Russian leader names possible location for peace talks

Saudi Arabia would be a good country to host a potential summit to end the Ukraine conflict, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. He made his statement during a press conference on Friday, while answering questions on a wide variety of topics.

A Saudi journalist asked Putin about his thoughts on the Arab kingdom’s mediation efforts and if Russia would attend a potential peace summit should Riyadh host such an event “by the end of this year.” 

Putin reaffirms that Russia views Saudi Arabia as “a friendly country.” He commended the Saudi leadership for their “sincere” effort to bring about peace. 

“So if such an event would be organized in Saudi Arabia, obviously, the venue itself would be rather comfortable for us,” the president said. He stressed, however, that any final settlement should be based on the draft prepared during the aborted negotiations in Istanbul, Türkiye in the spring of 2022.

According to Putin, the Ukrainian delegation had initially approved a draft treaty that would have transformed Ukraine into a neutral country and restricted the size of its army, but then abruptly left the negotiating table. Officials in Kiev later said that they did not trust the Russians and that Western leaders had advised them not to accept Moscow’s terms.

Former US under secretary of state Victoria Nuland further confirmed in September 2024 that Washington had believed that the conditions offered to Ukraine in Istanbul were not “a good deal.”

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has since insisted that peace could only be achieved on Kiev’s terms, including the restoration of Ukrainian territory to its 1991 borders. Moscow has said that Zelensky’s so-called “peace formula” was unacceptable and Kiev must recognize the new “territorial realities.”  

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