MOSCOW, November 5. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin once again reiterated Moscow’s readiness to engage in talks with kyiv.

“I have said more than once that Russia is not only ready for talks, but has already had them at a certain point, namely at the beginning of this conflict,” he said during the ceremony for receiving credentials from foreign ambassadors. “Those talks even resulted in a mutually acceptable treaty, which was initialed by the Ukrainian side.”

“But the Ukrainian side rejected that treaty on the advice of external parties, as confirmed by Ukrainian officials,” the president recalled.

Nearly three hours of talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul on March 29, 2022, yielded principles for a potential deal, including Ukraine’s commitment to maintaining a neutral, non-aligned status and its pledge to refrain from deploying foreign weapons, including nuclear weapons. , in its territory.

However, after Russia withdrew its forces from the kyiv and Chernigov regions, talks for a deal were frozen. According to President Putin, kyiv rejected the agreements. The Ukrainian side claimed that the rejection came on the advice of then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.