Kyiv announced negotiations of the Ukrainian delegation in the United States

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, during a visit to Kyiv, announced his readiness for negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Taz.de newspaper writes.

“Mr. Putin, we are ready to negotiate, we are ready to discuss ending this [Ukrainian] conflict,” he said.

Merz appealed to the Russian leadership and the Russian President with a proposal to hold negotiations after the cessation of hostilities, emphasizing that the weapons must first be “silenced.”

Previously, Putin stated that Russia did not refuse dialogue with Europe, and European countries initiated the cessation of relations. In May, the president also said that the Ukrainian conflict was provoked by the West, which, according to him, was using Ukraine to achieve geopolitical goals. Putin named former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder as his preferred negotiator for the European side.

“For me personally, the former Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Mr. [Gerhard] Schröder, is preferable. <…> Please, we have never been closed to negotiations, never. It was not we who refused, but they who refused,” he said.

The president has repeatedly emphasized that he is in favor of resolving the Ukrainian crisis, but insisted on eliminating its root causes and taking into account Russia’s interests. Among the conditions for the ceasefire, he named the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, Ukraine’s refusal to join NATO and the consolidation of the status of these regions, as well as Crimea and Sevastopol, within Russia in international documents.

On July 14, the Chancellor said that the time had come to sit down at the negotiating table and agree on a ceasefire. At the same time, Merz opposed Russia’s participation in determining the details of future security guarantees for Ukraine.