Russian President Putin says ready for talks, but Kyiv refusing to join

President Vladimir Putin on Friday repeated Russia's position that it was ready for negotiations with Ukraine, but that Kyiv was refusing to join.
 

Putin was responding to comments from African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat, who told a Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg that the AU attached great value to the integrity and sovereignty of states, and the peaceful settlement of crises through compromise. Kyiv has said it is not prepared to enter negotiations with Moscow while Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion 17 months ago, holds a fifth of Ukrainian territory.
 

Russia has repeatedly said any talks must take account of these “new realities”. A senior Ukrainian official accused Russia on Friday of threatening civilian vessels in the Black Sea, and urged the international community to condemn what he said were “the methods of terrorists”. Russia last week quit a UN-brokered deal allowing Ukraine, a major global grain producer, to safely export its grain via the Black Sea and warned that ships heading to Ukrainian seaports could be considered military targets. “Russian warships are threatening civilians in the Black Sea, violating all norms of international maritime law,” Andriy Yermak, head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
 

Ukraine’s border guard service said it intercepted a warning by Russia to a civilian vessel passing near a Ukrainian port .

“The aggressor’s warships continue to behave brazenly and audaciously in the waters of the Black Sea, violating all the norms of international maritime law,” it said.