Russia-Ukraine conflict will end with diplomacy, negotiation: Blinken

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken considered on Monday that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine will end with diplomacy and negotiation, stressing that it must be a durable and just peace.

"At some point, this will end, and it will end almost certainly with diplomacy, with negotiation. But what I think we have to see is a just and durable peace, not a phony peace," Blinken told The Wall Street Journal.

Last Friday, White House National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby stated that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not ready for negotiations with Russia.

"President Zelensky... also has said he believes in a diplomatic solution, but he's not ready either. So we're just not at a point right now where talks seem to be a fruitful avenue to approach," Kirby said at a press briefing.

Kirby also stressed that the US is committed to ensuring that Ukraine continues to receive necessary security assistance, adding that US President Joe Biden has not indicated that now is the time to hold negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the crisis in Ukraine.

Biden said he was willing to talk with Putin if there was a sincere interest to end the conflict in Ukraine.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu considered on Friday that some Western countries are not interested in settling the Ukrainian crisis and should persuade Ukraine to sit at the negotiating table with Russia.

Following the start of the war in Ukraine in late February, Russia-Ukraine talks began. The final round of talks in Istanbul concluded on March 29. The discussions have since come to a standstill.

In late September, Putin said Moscow was still open to talks with Kiev and called on Ukraine to stop the hostilities.

Kirby had previously claimed that the US is not trying to force Kiev to hold talks or cede territory, telling reporters that only Zelensky "gets to determine if and when he's ready for negotiations and what those negotiations look like."

"Nobody from the United States is pushing, prodding or nudging him to the table," he said.

However, US officials told The Washington Post that Biden's administration is secretly pressing Kiev to demonstrate a willingness to negotiate with Moscow.

The newspaper said Washington does not want Ukraine to start negotiations with Russia but rather to reassure Kiev it has the support of other countries.

While US officials agree with their Ukrainian counterparts that Putin is allegedly not serious about talks, for the time being, they acknowledge that Zelensky's ban on talks has caused concern in parts of Europe, Africa, and Latin America, where the war's disruptive effects on the availability and cost of food and fuel are most acute, according to the WSJ.