Moscow (EFE).- The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, remains open to any contact to discuss possible solutions to the conflict in Ukraine.
This was announced today by the spokesman for the Russian Presidency, Dmitri Peskov, on the eve of the arrival in Moscow of a delegation of African leaders already in Kiev, with an offer of mediation to end the war in Ukraine.
According to Peskov, “President Putin has been and continues to be open to any contact in order to discuss possible variants of solving the Ukrainian problem.”
However, Putin’s adviser, Yuri Ushakov, pointed out that the Russian side does not yet know the content of the peace initiative that the African delegation plans to present.
“Putin supports all ideas aimed at solving this problem and ending the conflict,” added Peskov, in statements collected by the TASS agency.
In any case, the proposals of seven leaders of African countries will be discussed tomorrow with the head of the Kremlin in a meeting that Moscow considers “very important,” he stressed.
On the other hand, the Russian president thanked his Emirati counterpart, Mohamed bin Zayed, for his mediation in prisoner exchanges and other humanitarian issues between Russia and Ukraine on Friday.
“I would like to thank you for your efforts to resolve the humanitarian problems related to the events in Ukraine,” Putin told him at a meeting held on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, to which the Emirati president is a guest.
The Kremlin’s number one assured that the United Arab Emirates is a “good and comfortable” partner for Russia and relations between the two countries are developing “quite successfully.”
Bin Zayed, for his part, assured that his country is willing to do what is necessary to contribute to the “stabilization of the situation” in Ukraine and help in humanitarian affairs.
In June 2022, according to the Russian press, Abu Dhabi turned to Moscow with the proposal to mediate humanitarian exchanges with Ukraine.
The last exchange involving the United Arab Emirates reported by official Russian and Ukrainian sources took place in February 2023.