Vladimir Putin says he expects US negotiators to come to Moscow, once Washington had reached an agreement with Iran over the Middle East conflict. “We expect that after all the events are over, after the active phase on the Iranian track has passed, we will see the arrival of those representatives of the US administration with whom we have already met in Moscow repeatedly,” the Russian president told Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin. “We are ready to continue negotiations and ready to continue negotiations and discuss all the details.” Putin was responding to a question on the state of Russian-US relations after the G7 summit in France, when Donald Trump said Russia should “make a deal with Ukraine”. On Wednesday, the US President said his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy was doing well in the war against Russia, having previously said he lacked the “cards” to win.
Russia’s president acknowledged “a certain shortage” of fuel after Ukrainian retaliatory strikes on energy infrastructure sparked by his invasion of the country. “As for strikes against critical infrastructure in general, and energy infrastructure in particular, of course these attacks on our infrastructure facilities create problems, that’s obvious,” said Putin in an interview published by the Kremlin on Sunday. “Right now we’re observing a certain shortage, but it’s not critical.” The priority now was to improve air defences and protest fuel supplies particularly in Russian-occupied Crimea, he said. Fuel deliveries to the Black Sea peninsula by land and sea will be increased, Putin said.
