Putin wants to stop conflict in Ukraine 'literally right now'

Moscow's peace initiative may stop the conflict in Ukraine and resolve it through diplomacy, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his greeting to participants of the Primakov Readings forum.

The head of state expressed confidence that the participants of the forum would pay due attention to the Russian proposal for a peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian crisis.

"I hope that, unlike many Western politicians who did not even want to delve into the essence of our initiative, the forum participants will approach its consideration thoughtfully and rationally and they will be able to see that it does make it possible to stop the conflict and proceed to its political and diplomatic settlement," Vladimir Putin said.

Putin hoped that the forum participants would also touch upon Moscow's ideas for creating a system of equal, indivisible security and mutually beneficial cooperation on the Eurasian continent.

Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov said that Putin's proposal opens up an opportunity to put an end to the Ukrainian conflict "literally right now”. According to him, Moscow's initiative is aimed at preventing armed confrontations similar those in Ukraine in the future. The initiative opens up a possibility to resolve the crisis through political and diplomatic measures.

Moscow is hosting the 10th International Scientific Expert Forum Primakov Readings on June 25-26. The main topic of the forum was announced as "Russia in global context.” This is an annual international meeting of experts in the field of international relations and global economics.

On June 21, Putin addressed the West about the crisis in Ukraine. He considered it a big mistake to talk about inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia, since this would mean the end of a thousand-year-old statehood.

The West lowered the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons in order to cause Russia to suffer strategic defeat, Putin noted.

"Why should we be afraid? Isn't it better then to go to the end?” Putin said.

On June 14, Putin named two conditions for the Russian army to cease fire in the zone of the special military operation. According to him, Ukraine must withdraw troops from Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, as well as from Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics. In addition, Kyiv must officially notify of its refusal to join NATO. The Ukrainian side did not accept the conditions.

The United States and European countries want to continue to fight with Russia with Ukrainians' help, Kremlin's official spokesman Dmitry Peskov then noted.

"What the Americans say, what some particularly hawkish Europeans say, is understandable — they need to continue to fight with Russia through the hands of Ukrainians, to the last Ukrainian,” Peskov said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted that Putin voiced the most realistic basis for resolving the conflict in Ukraine.