Guinea-Bissau Leader Tells Zelenskyy Putin Ready To Hold Talks On Ukraine

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th October, 2022) Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo said on Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin told him during their meeting in Moscow that he was ready to hold talks on Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed Guinea-Bissau's president to Kiev on Wednesday, a day after the leader of the western African nation visited Russia.

"Yesterday I was in Russia with President Putin, who asked me to pass a message to you, to talk to you... I am here not only as the president of Guinea-Bissau, but also as the head of ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States), and I came here with this message, understanding my mission and my function. That is � communicating the real position, communicating your signals to all ECOWAS countries. This decision was not just made spontaneously; it was preceded by many discussions, and actually to all the arguments that I told him (Putin), he told me: I am ready for negotiations with (Ukrainian) President Zelenskyy," Embalo said during a joint briefing with Zelenskyy in Kiev.

Commenting on the possibility of dialogue with Russia, Zelenskyy said that he considered Moscow's signals about readiness to negotiate as part of state rhetoric aimed at Russians and people in states that support Russia.

In late September, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks with Ukraine and called on Kiev to stop the hostilities. Zelenskyy stated that Kiev was also ready for a dialogue with Moscow, but only if another president came to power in Russia, and signed a decree on the impossibility of holding talks with Russia under Putin's rule on October 4.