Russia remains open to talks with Ukraine
MOSCOW. – Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a telephone conversation with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday that despite Kiev’s unpreparedness for serious work, Russia remained open to a dialogue, the Kremlin’s press service has said.
“The Russian president explained the fundamental approach to negotiations with the Ukrainian representatives. In particular, he stressed that despite Kiev’s inconsistency and unpreparedness for serious work Russia remained open to a dialogue,” the Kremlin said.
Mr Putin told Mr Marcon that the EU countries were ignoring war crimes committed by the Ukrainian forces.
“It was stressed that the EU member-countries ignore war crimes committed by the Ukrainian forces and massive bombardments of Donbass villages and cities, which kill peaceful civilians,” the Russian presidential press-service said in a statement.
The Russian side pointed out that “the West might contribute to putting these crimes to an end by exerting pressure on the authorities in Kiev and terminating weapons supplies to Ukraine”.
Mr Putin and his French counterpart also discussed global food security. The Kremlin’s press-service said “the French side expressed concern over the problem of maintaining global food security.” It is due to Western sanctions first and foremost.
“In this context Putin stressed that the situation in this field was aggravated in the first place by the Western countries’ sanctions and underscored the importance of unhampered operation of the global logistic and transport infrastructure,” the Kremlin said.
Mr Putin congratulated Mr Macron upon his victory in the recent presidential election. The two leaders agreed to continue contacts at different levels.
This conversation between Mr Putin and Mr Macron was their first one since Mr Macron’s re-election for a second term. The two leaders last talked by telephone on March 29.
Last Saturday, Mr Macron held a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky.
Meanwhile. Russian combat aircraft and helicopters practiced flying in parade formations in a rehearsal of the upcoming Victory Day Parade over Moscow’s Red Square, a TASS correspondent reported yesterday.
Russia will hold its traditional May 9 Victory Parade on Moscow’s Red Square to celebrate the 77th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War. The airborne part of the military parade on Red Square will feature 77 fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft to represent the number of years that have passed since the end of the Great Patriotic War.
During the rehearsal of the airborne part of the military parade, an Il-80 ‘doomsday’ strategic command post escorted by two MiG29 fighters flew over Moscow. The flyover also included a Tu-95MS strategic missile-carrying bomber escorted by Su-35S fighters and a Tu-160 ‘White Swan’ strategic bomber flying alongside an Il-78 aerial refueling tanker.
Tu-22M3 long-range bombers, the latest MiG-31I and MiG-31BM and Su-57 fifth-generation fighters also flew over Moscow in a rehearsal of the airborne part of the military parade.
Eight MiG-29SMT jets flew over Moscow’s Red Square in a flight formation resembling the letter Z in support of Russian troops participating in the special military operation in Ukraine.
Nine planes of the Russkiye Vityazi (Russian Knights) and Strizhi (Swifts) aerobatic groups performed the ‘Kubinka Diamond’ stunt over the centre of Moscow and six Su-25 ground attack aircraft released fumes in the colors of the Russian national tricolour flag. – TASS