Kremlin Turns Down Biden's Attempts to Broker Ukraine Peace Talks

The Kremlin on Friday shut down President Joe Biden's attempts to broker Ukraine peace talks, calling his conditions "unacceptable."

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Moscow does not accept Biden's requirement that Russian forces withdraw completely from Ukraine before he speaks with his Russian counterpart.

Peskov was responding to Biden's comment on Thursday that he would talk to Putin about the Ukraine war if the Russian leader is serious about putting an end to the conflict. Biden said that the only way the war could end was for Putin to pull out his troops.

"I'm prepared to speak with Mr. Putin if in fact there is an interest in him deciding he's looking for a way to end the war," Biden said late Thursday during a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron.

"There's one way for this war to end—the rational way. Putin to pull out of Ukraine, number one. But it appears he's not," Biden said.

Peskov told reporters on Friday that the Kremlin is not prepared to withdraw its troops from Ukraine and that Russia's so-called special military operation there continues.

"In fact, what President Biden said, he said that negotiations are possible only after Putin leaves Ukraine," the Kremlin spokesman said, according to RIA Novosti, Russia's state-run news agency.

The U.S. does not recognize new territories as part of Russia, which "significantly complicates" the search for a common ground for mutual discussion, Peskov continued. He was referring to four Ukrainian regions that Russia illegally annexed in September.

Peskov added that "to achieve our goals, President Putin was, is and remains open to negotiations with everyone."

John Kirby, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, said Wednesday that Moscow has shown no signs that Russia's military operations are either going to slow down or stop completely in Ukraine.

Macron said during Thursday's joint press conference that it is up to Ukraine to decide when conditions have been met before beginning peace talks with Russia.

"We will never urge Ukrainians to make a compromise that is not acceptable to them," the French president said. "We have to let Ukrainians decide the moment and the conditions that they will negotiate."

Meanwhile, a poll commissioned by the Kremlin "for internal use only" shows that more than half of the Russians surveyed favor peace talks with Kyiv.

The private poll, obtained by Meduza, a Russian-language independent news outlet, found that only 25 percent of Russians favor continuing the conflict, while 55 percent support peace negotiations with Ukraine.

The Kremlin also commissioned polling in July, Meduza reported, and the results suggest public opinion has shifted considerably in just a few months. In the earlier survey, 57 percent were in favor of continuing the war and 32 percent supported peace talks with Ukraine.

Meduza did not specify how many people were questioned for the two Kremlin surveys or when the new one was conducted.

Newsweek has reached out to Russia's Foreign Ministry and the Biden administration for comment.

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