Russian president Vladimir Putin says his country’s new nuclear submarines will protect it for decades, while his foreign ministry says Kyiv’s call for a peace summit is 'delirious'.
ADVERTISEMENTRussian President Vladimir Putin oversaw the commissioning of four nuclear submarines on Thursday.
“We will speed up and increase the volumes of construction of ships of various projects, equip them with the most modern weapons, and conduct the operational and combat training using the experience received during the special military operation,” Putin said, referring to the war in Ukraine.
And he added that the submarines guarantee Russia's security for the coming decades.
The move comes as his country’s foreign ministry called Ukraine's peace summit proposal "delirious" and "hollow."
“[Ukrainian authorities] have come up with yet another extravagant idea, clothed it in some kind of internationally legal form, but the point is the same - they're not recognising the obvious,” Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, said.
“We consider such a delirious idea to be another publicity stunt by Washington that has recently been trying to cast the Kyiv regime as a peacemaker.”
In an interview with the Associated Press on Monday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Kyiv wants a “peace” summit within two months at the United Nations with Secretary-General António Guterres as mediator.
Moscow said any peace plan could only proceed if Kyiv recognises Russia’s sovereignty over the areas it annexed from Ukraine.
The UN gave a very cautious response to the proposal. “As the secretary-general has said many times in the past, he can only mediate if all parties want him to mediate,” Florencia Soto Nino-Martinez, a UN associate spokesperson, said on Monday.
Other world leaders also offered to mediate, such as those in Turkey and Saudi Arabia.