Russian envoy to India Denis Alipov
Credit: X/@AmbRus_India
New Delhi: Amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, Russian envoy to India Denis Alipov on Wednesday said there is not much ground for negotiation at present but Moscow is prepared to sit and talk with Kyiv, provided there is an "acceptable basis".
Alipov said this in response to a query during an interaction session here on BRICS and its potential. The session was hosted by Russian state-owned Sputnik news agency.
In his opening remarks at the session, Alipov hailed BRICS and described the grouping of emerging economies as a "reflection of new realities".
The Russia-Ukraine conflict, which began in February 2022, entered its 1,000th day on Monday.
Asked if Russia would be willing to sit across the table and talk to Ukraine to seek a resolution to this conflict, the envoy said, "Frankly, (we) don't see much grounds for negotiations at the moment." "What we are prepared for is to sit and talk, provided there is a basis for negotiations," Alipov said.
And that basis should include the ground realities in the first place, interests of Russia from the point of view of security and protection of Russians within Ukraine and Ukrainian citizens of Russian origin, he said.
"The basis should be there for negotiations and provided there is an acceptable basis for it... whether it will be (Volodymyr) Zelenskky or some other person, this is a question, which I would not address at the moment," he added.
In response to another question on whether a new world order could be achieved in the near future, given that two major conflicts are underway, the envoy said, "I believe BRICS is very much capable of becoming a major platform for conflict resolution."
"What we believe and what the process and discussions within BRICS have increasingly shown is that BRICS will be capable of at least being a discussion platform for conflict resolution. Whether it is able to resolve current or future conflicts remains to be seen," Alipov said.