"I'm ready to talk to Putin if he shows signs of wanting to end the war, but so far he hasn't."
Joe Biden said this in a press conference at the White House with French President Emmanuel Macron.
There is an important figure in the American administration with whom Russia would be willing to negotiate to find a solution to the Ukrainian conflict: John Kerry, a politician who has already shown that he is capable of "respectful dialogue".
This was stated by Moscow's foreign minister, Serghei Lavrov, who had a long association with Kerry at the time when he was secretary of state, and Russia and the USA were opposing each other in another war, the one in Syria.
Today, however, the US and NATO are fighting directly in Ukraine against Russia, complains Lavrov, who also calls Italy into question.
Military training of Ukrainians is carried out on the territory of "UK, Germany, Italy and other NATO countries",
says the head of Russian diplomacy in a two and a half hour press conference dedicated largely to denouncing what he called the aspiration of the Atlantic Alliance for "global domination".
Not only that, the training is carried out by "hundreds of Western instructors" directly on the ground in Ukraine, where they also send a large number of mercenaries and intelligence agents to indicate to the Ukrainian "Nazi battalions" the targets to hit.
None of that, replies Jens Stoltenberg.
"NATO is not a party to the conflict, we are not letting ourselves be dragged into the conflict by Putin", assures the secretary general, stating instead that "the task" of the Alliance "is to support Ukraine and avoid an escalation that goes beyond 'Ukraine"
because if Russia wins "this would encourage other authoritarian regimes to use the same means".
On the ground, the offensive - all things considered still limited - by Russian troops and its allies in Donetsk and Lugansk, supported by militiamen from Wagner and by Ramzan Kadyrov's Chechens, in the eastern region of Donbass continues to make headlines.
Another village, Kurdyumovka, was captured in the last few hours in the Donetsk region, after the Ukrainians lost Andreevka, Belogorovka and Pershe Travnya the day before, Moscow's defense ministry said.
The goal, according to Kiev and Westerners, is the capture of Bakhmut, a city of more than 70.
000 inhabitants which however according to various military analysts would not have a value equal to the heavy losses that the Russians could suffer to conquer it from a strategic point of view.
It could therefore be more than a symbolic loot, to mark Moscow's redemption after the retreat it was forced into between September and October in the nearby Kharkiv region and then also in Donetsk with the loss of Lyman.
Meanwhile there is a new exchange of prisoners, with 50 freed on each side.
But at the moment the negotiations seem to be limited to this.
European Council President Charles Michel, on a visit to Beijing, said he had asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to "leverage his influence to end Russia's war on Ukraine".
From Washington, Emmanuel Macron said he was sure that a negotiating table with Putin "is still possible".
But Lavrov complains that, despite the French president's public announcements that he wants to talk to the Russian one, he hasn't yet shown up.
Then there were some "statements" from the Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, but no "concrete proposals".
As for the Vatican initiative, the Russian Foreign Minister returned to the Pope's words regarding the particular cruelty of Chechen and Buryat soldiers in Ukraine.
Lavrov called them "un-Christian statements" which "do not help strengthen the authority of the Papal States".
The only one to save himself from Moscow's judgment is therefore Kerry.
The current US presidential climate envoy understands,
said Lavrov, that "negotiations should aim not at suppressing the enemy but at achieving results through respectful dialogue".
"We have met more than 50 times", underlined the Russian minister, defining "John as a person sincerely interested in results and ready to solve problems together".
As for the announcement by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen on the plan to create a court before which Russia would have to answer for its actions in Ukraine, Moscow dismisses it without too many words.
They are just attempts that "have no legitimacy," says Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
announcement by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen on the plan to create a court before which Russia would have to answer for its actions in Ukraine, Moscow dismisses it without too many words.
They are just attempts that "have no legitimacy," says Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
announcement by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen on the plan to create a court before which Russia would have to answer for its actions in Ukraine, Moscow dismisses it without too many words.
They are just attempts that "have no legitimacy," says Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
"The Italian Defense specifies that it has not carried out any training in Italy" in favor of the Ukrainian soldiers on the national territory.
"To date, the Defense has sent only 4 members of the Armed Forces to Germany as part of the European training group, who, at this moment, are planning possible training cycles to be carried out in the future".
This is what a note from the Italian defense underlines.
