Russian President Vladimir Putin said today , that Ukraine should hold presidential elections after the expiration of the five-year term of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, reported Reuters, quoted by BTA.
Zelensky has not run in wartime elections despite his term expiring, something he and Kiev's allies see as the right decision.
Putin stated that the only legitimate authority in Ukraine at this moment is the parliament and power should be handed over to its chairman.
The Russian president also said that the West had provoked the recent Russian offensive in Ukraine's Kharkiv region by ignoring warnings not to allow Ukrainian shelling of Russia's neighboring Belgorod region.
Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory with weapons supplied to Kiev from the West are possible only with the help of experts from Western countries, the head of state added, indicating that this could lead to serious consequences.
According to him, Russia has never refused to participate in peace negotiations with Ukraine and is ready to hold them, as long as Ukraine itself is a party to the negotiation process.
Putin is of the opinion that the French military presence in Ukraine is a step towards a global conflict. According to him, French mercenaries have been in Ukraine for a long time. Paris has repeatedly denied Russian accusations on this issue, while at the same time French President Emmanuel Macron did not rule out the possibility of sending military instructors to Ukraine in the future, Reuters recalls.
The Russian president also touched on the topic of the Taliban ruling Afghanistan.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said yesterday that the Taliban movement is the "actual power” in Afghanistan and that the organization's potential removal from Moscow's list of banned organizations reflects "objective reality".
Commenting on the recognition of the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan and their removal from the Russian list of terrorist organizations, Putin said today that Russia should take Afghanistan's opinion into account and build relations with that country.