Moscow is ready to negotiate with the leadership of Ukraine on the neutral status of this country and the refusal to place weapons on its territory, Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“The President ( Putin – IF ) formulated his vision of what we would expect from Ukraine in order for the conceptual” red-linear “problems to be resolved. This is a neutral status, this is a refusal to deploy weapons,” he clarified. “Here is the question, Is the leadership of Ukraine ready for this?

To a clarifying question whether Russia is now ready to talk with the leadership of Ukraine on this topic, Peskov said: “If the leadership of Ukraine is ready to talk about it.”

Putin announced the start of a military operation in Ukraine, the purpose of which is to liberate the people of the country from the “anti-people junta”. President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Russia.

Peskov explained that it is not a war that is going on in Ukraine, but a special operation, the purpose of which is the denazification of the country and demilitarization in the interests of Russia’s security.