Putin says ‘understandings’ reached at Alaska summit open way to peace in Ukraine

(Reuters): Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that “understandings” he reached with US President Donald Trump at a summit in August opened a way to peace in Ukraine, which he would discuss with leaders attending a regional summit in China.

Kyiv and its Western allies call Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022 an imperial war of conquest to annex territory, though Russia says it is special military operation aimed to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine.

Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and leaders from Central Asia, the Middle East, South Asia and Southeast Asia are attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organization forum in the city of Tianjin, hosted by President Xi Jinping.

“We highly appreciate the efforts and proposals from China and India aimed at facilitating the resolution of the Ukrainian crisis,” Putin told the forum.

“The understandings reached at the recent Russia–US meeting in Alaska, I hope, also contribute toward this goal.”

He said he had already detailed to Xi on Sunday the achievements of his talks with Trump and the work “already underway” to resolve the conflict and would provide more detail in two-way meetings with the Chinese leader and others.

“For the Ukrainian settlement to be sustainable and long-term, the root causes of the crisis must be addressed.”

Part of the source of the conflict “lies in the ongoing attempts by the West to bring Ukraine into NATO,” Putin reiterated.