U.S. rejects Putin's latest attempt for Ukraine negotiations
WASHINGTON >> The Biden administration dismissed on Friday a call by President Vladimir Putin of Russia for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, showing no sign that flagging political support for U.S. military aid to Ukraine had made President Joe Biden more inclined to make concessions to Russia.
During his two-hour interview at the Kremlin with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who now broadcasts independently online, Putin offered long defenses of his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 but said he was prepared to settle the conflict diplomatically.
“We are willing to negotiate,” Putin told Carlson in the interview, which was released Thursday. “You should tell the current Ukrainian leadership to stop and come to the negotiating table,” he said, referring to the U.S. government.
Putin spoke at a moment of apparent leverage, following the failure of a vaunted Ukrainian summer counteroffensive to achieve substantial gains and as the Biden administration is struggling to win congressional approval for desperately needed additional military aid for Ukraine.
It is not the first time Putin has expressed willingness to negotiate over the fate of Ukraine, and Western officials have long been skeptical of his intentions. But because it was his first interview with an American journalist since the invasion, his call for talks has extra resonance, analysts said.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials say that the best Ukraine's military can hope for in the coming year, especially without more U.S. aid, is to defend its current positions. Even so, Biden officials say they are not entertaining the idea of pressing Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to negotiate with Putin.
“Both we and President Zelenskyy have said numerous times that we believe this war will end through negotiations,” a National Security Council spokesperson said in a statement. “Despite Mr. Putin's words, we have seen no actions to indicate he is interested in ending this war. If he was, he would pull back his forces and stop his ceaseless attacks on Ukraine.”
U.S. officials had previously assessed that Putin had no intention of negotiating seriously until after the U.S. presidential election in November. Putin, they say, wants to wait to see whether former President Donald Trump might return to the White House and offer him more favorable terms.
The Biden administration has supported Ukraine's stated desire to reclaim territory that Russia has occupied since its invasion. Russia now occupies about 18% of Ukrainian land.
U.S. officials have also long insisted that, despite the more than $75 billion in aid the United States has supplied to Ukraine, it is not for Washington to dictate whether Ukraine engages in peace talks and what on terms. “Ultimately, it's up to Ukraine to decide its path on negotiations,” the National Security Council statement said.