MOSCOW, Sept 25 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that all proposals for a settlement in the 4-1/2-year-old war with Ukraine remained on the table, but Moscow still needed to assess what was in its best interests.
Putin also said Moscow had been ready to resume negotiations with Kyiv after last week’s Russian parliamentary elections, but Ukraine launched attacks on Moscow and hit polling stations.
Addressing journalists in St Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city, Putin said it was Ukraine that had launched provocative attacks and would now have to pay the price of a sustained response.
“They are the ones who started it. Everywhere, on every front. Are these playthings, child’s play?” Putin said in remarks broadcast on Russian television.
“They should therefore be made to feel Russia’s retaliatory strikes and understand that no provocative actions, no stirring up the situation to secure a result, will work. They’re only making things worse for themselves.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said attacks on Russia were a fair response to strikes on his country’s civilians and infrastructure, while calling for direct talks with Russia on resolving the war.
Putin said Russia’s retaliatory actions were behind Ukraine’s calls for a ceasefire and a resumption of talks.
“They are all on the table. It’s all possible,” he said. “But after everything they have done, we will still have to think carefully about what we need to do in response.”
Russian forces have long been conducting strikes on Ukrainian cities, mostly at night, but in recent weeks have targeted Kyiv and other towns with day-long barrages of drones and missiles. Air strikes on Friday killed seven people in the capital.
Ukraine has for months staged a long string of strikes on Russian targets, focusing on the oil industry and retail outlets, some as far as 3,000 km (1,800 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
In his comments, Putin said Ukraine’s call for new talks was also prompted by the Kyiv military’s difficulty in countering jet-powered drones, which fly at higher altitudes and have proved more difficult to intercept.
He said Ukraine had provoked confrontation by launching mass attacks on St Petersburg during an international conference in June and on Moscow last week, on the main day of Russia’s parliamentary election.
Kyiv’s forces, he said, had attacked polling stations, killing one election official and injuring others.
Referring to talks in Washington this week between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Putin also said Russia welcomed any “agreement of a positive nature” between Washington and Beijing.
He said that his participation in the forthcoming APEC summit in China would depend on events at home in Russia.
(Reporting by Maxim Rodionov; Writing by Marina Bobrova; Editing by Toby Chopra, Ron Popeski, Mark Potter and Edmund Klamann)
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