Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that the "understanding" reached with US President Donald Trump during their meeting in Alaska last month had opened the way to peace in Ukraine, Reuters reported. Putin discussed this with state leaders during the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in China, the agency specified.
Kiev and its Western allies called Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 an "imperial war of conquest to annex territories," while Russia defines it as a "special military operation aimed at the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine," Reuters notes.
Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and leaders from Central Asia, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia gathered at the SCO forum in the Chinese city of Tianjin, hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
"We highly appreciate the efforts and proposals from China and India aimed at facilitating the resolution of the Ukrainian crisis," Putin said at the forum. "The understanding reached during the last Russian-American meeting in Alaska, I hope, will also contribute to (achieving) this goal," the Russian president added.
He said he had discussed with Xi yesterday what had been achieved during his talks with Trump and "work is already underway" to resolve the conflict. Putin added that he would provide more details during his bilateral meetings with the Chinese leader and other heads of state.
"For the Ukrainian agreement to be sustainable and long-term, attention must be paid to the root causes of the crisis," the Russian president said.
The conflict "is partly due to the West's ongoing attempts to bring Ukraine into NATO," Putin added.