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Russia's Special Operation in Ukraine
On February 24, 2022, Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine, aiming to liberate and defend the inhabitants of the Donbass region, where people have been suffering from a blockade and regular attacks by the Kiev regime's forces since 2014.

'He's Nervous': Russian MFA on Ukraine's Zelensky Changing Stance on Borders in Talks With Moscow

© Sputnik . Natalia SeliverstovaThe building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation in Moscow.
The building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation in Moscow. - Sputnik Africa, 1920, 30.03.2024
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On Saturday, Volodymyr Zelensky said for the first time since the start of the special military operation that peace talks between Moscow and Kiev could begin without Ukraine returning to its 1991 borders: he is now talking about Ukraine's borders in 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is nervous because he has "elections" or "no elections" coming up, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik, commenting on his remarks about negotiations with Russia without taking into account the 1991 borders.

"He's nervous. He's got an election coming up. Or is there no election coming up?" Zakharova said.

Presidential elections in Ukraine were supposed to be held on March 31, 2024, but were canceled due to martial law and general mobilization. Zelensky said that the election now is "not the right time" and stressed that this issue should be put to rest. Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, for his part, said that Zelensky's powers would expire on May 21.
On Saturday, Zelensky said in an interview with US media that Russia would be "ready for dialogue" if Ukraine could adhere to its 2022 borders, before Russia's special military operation began.
Kiev has previously said that the start of peace talks is impossible until Russian troops leave the territory of Ukraine within the 1991 borders.
Volodymyr Zelensky delivers his speech at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. - Sputnik Africa, 1920, 30.03.2024
Russia's Special Operation in Ukraine
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Moscow has repeatedly indicated that it is ready for negotiations, but Kiev has legislated a ban on them. The West calls on Russia to negotiate, which Moscow has shown it is ready to do, but at the same time the West ignores Kiev's constant refusal to talk.
Earlier, the Kremlin said that there are no conditions for the situation in Ukraine to move in a peaceful direction now, the absolute priority for Russia is to achieve the goals of the special operation, at the moment this is possible only by military means.
As the Kremlin said, the situation in Ukraine can move to a peaceful course if the de facto situation and new realities are taken into account, all Moscow's demands are well known.
Last June, during a meeting with a visiting delegation of African leaders seeking a peaceful resolution to the Russo-Ukrainian conflict, Russian President Vladimir Putin presented them the treaty with Kiev that had been agreed upon in Turkey negotiations in March of 2022.
According to Putin, the treaty contained provisions on neutrality and security guarantees for Ukraine, in return to Russian troops' withdrawal from certain regions of the country. However, after the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Kiev and Chernigov regions as a "gesture of goodwill" requested by the European guarantors, Ukraine abandoned it and "threw it into the dustbin of history."
In November last year, in an interview with the national broadcaster David Arakhamia, the leader of the presidential faction of Ukraine's ruling Servant of the People party, and a member of the negotiation team at the time, said that former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson persuaded Kiev not to sign an agreement with Russia to end the conflict in spring 2022.
Likewise, since the failure of the peace negotiations, Putin has repeatedly pointed out that in order to hold peace talks with Moscow, Kiev must first cancel the Ukrainian president's decree prohibiting peace talks. Zelensky signed the decree, which stated the impossibility of holding talks with Putin in the fall of 2022.
The main goals of the Russian special military operation that was launched in late February 2022 were to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine, that is, to eliminate the military threat to Donbass and the far-right elements in Kiev's leadership.
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