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Vladimir Putin's olive branch? Russian leader says this on Ukraine ‘tragedy'
Vladimir Putin at G20: Vladimir Putin said that some leaders had said in their speeches that they were shocked by the ongoing "aggression" of Russia in Ukraine.
Russian president Vladimir Putin told the Group of 20 (G20) that it was necessary to think about how to stop "the tragedy" of the war in Ukraine. Moscow has never refused to participate in peace talks with Kyiv, he asserted, addressing G20 leaders for the first time since the start of the war. The Kremlin chief said that some leaders had said in their speeches that they were shocked by the ongoing "aggression" of Russia in Ukraine.
“Yes, of course, military actions are always a tragedy,” he said, adding, "And of course, we should think about how to stop this tragedy. By the way, Russia has never refused peace talks with Ukraine."
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“I understand that this war and the loss of life cannot but shock. Isn’t the bloody coup in Ukraine in 2014, followed by the war of the Kyiv regime against its people in Donbass, shocking? Isn’t the extermination of the civilian population in Palestine, in the Gaza Strip, shocking today? Isn’t it shocking that doctors have to perform operations on children, abdominal surgeries, and use a scalpel on a child’s body without anesthesia? Isn’t it shocking that the Secretary-General of the United Nations said that Gaza has turned into a huge children’s cemetery,” he said on the Israel-Hamas war.
Vladimir Putin skipped previous G20 summits in New Delhi and Nusa Dua, Indonesia, sending Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov instead. The Russian leader addressed the 2021 and 2020 summits from Moscow and last attended a G20 gathering in person in Osaka, Japan, in 2019.
On global economy, Vladimir Putin said, “Now the situation in the global economy and in the world as a whole requires collective, consensus decisions that reflect the opinions of the overwhelming majority of the international community - both developed and developing countries. The world is undergoing processes of radical transformation. New powerful centers of global economic development are emerging and strengthening.”
