US President Joe Biden has announced that he is ready to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin if Putin shows interest in finding ways to end the war, the BBC writes.
In a mutual press meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Biden said that so far Putin has not yet shown a desire to seek compromises. The presidents of France and the United States also stressed that they will continue to oppose the war, and Macron said that under no circumstances will France force Ukraine to take decisions it does not accept.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov complained that European countries have not offered concrete solutions. Lavrov said that Macron had promised to contact Vladimir Putin but had not done so, and suggested that former US Secretary of State John Kerry could be a good negotiator, who has proven himself in the past.
Biden made this statement at a time when the advisor of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Mykhailo Podolyak informed that up to 13 000 Ukrainian soldiers have died in the war so far.
The Ukrainian army has not confirmed this information.
After talks at the White House, Biden and Macron told both countries are determined to continue helping Ukraine protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity. France and the USA are committed to increasing the supply of anti-aircraft defense systems and will hold an international conference on the situation in Ukraine on the 13th of December in Paris.
Read also: Mykhailo Podolyak: up to 13 000 Ukrainian soldiers have died