U.S. Sees Little Prospect for Ukraine Talks With Putin After Biden Offer

A day after President Biden said he would be willing to talk with President Vladimir Putin of Russia about a possible peace agreement in Ukraine, the Kremlin offered a frosty response, and prospects for settling the brutal conflict remained as distant as ever.

Dmitri Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, said that the U.S. “still does not recognize new territories as part of Russia,” an apparent reference to eastern Ukrainian regions that Mr. Putin claimed to annex after sham referendums in September, saying that “this makes more complicated the search for common ground for mutual discussions.”

The Russian position also essentially rules out serious negotiations with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who has said the war could not end until Ukraine had reclaimed all its territory from Russia. Read more

@nytimes