Putin Tells Xi Russia Ready for High-level Talks with Kiev

"Russia is ready to negotiate with the Ukrainian side at a high level," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement

© Alexei Nikolsky/Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/TASS

BEIJING, February 25. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping that Moscow is ready to hold high-level talks with Kiev, a statement published Friday on the website of the Chinese Foreign Ministry reads.

"Russia is ready to negotiate with the Ukrainian side at a high level," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on Thursday morning that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories.

Russia’s Defense Ministry reported later on Thursday that Russian troops were not delivering strikes against Ukrainian cities. It emphasized that Ukrainian military infrastructure was being destroyed by precision weapons.

On Thursday morning, Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, introduced martial law across the country.