Putin says Russia wants end to war in Ukraine - Reuters

Dec 22 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said connected Thursday that Russia wants an extremity to the warfare successful Ukraine and that this would inevitably impact a diplomatic solution.

Putin made the comments a time aft U.S. President Joe Biden hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy successful the White House and promised him continued and unwavering U.S. support.

"Our extremity is not to rotation the flywheel of subject conflict, but, connected the contrary, to extremity this war," Putin said. "We volition strive for an extremity to this, and the sooner the better, of course."

White House spokesperson John Kirby said Putin has "shown perfectly zero denotation that he's consenting to negotiate" an extremity to the war, which began erstwhile Moscow sent troops into Ukraine connected Feb. 24.

"Quite the contrary," Kirby told reporters during an online briefing. "Everything helium (Putin) is doing connected the crushed and successful the aerial bespeaks a antheral who wants to proceed to sojourn unit upon the Ukrainian people" and "escalate the war."

Kirby reiterated that Biden was unfastened to talks with Putin, but lone aft the Russian person "showed a seriousness astir negotiations" and aft consultations with Ukraine and U.S. allies.

Russia has persistently said it is unfastened to negotiations, but Ukraine and its allies fishy a ploy to bargain clip aft a bid of Russian defeats and retreats that person swung the momentum of the 10-month warfare successful favour of Kyiv.

"I person said galore times: the intensification of hostilities leads to unjustified losses," Putin told reporters.

"All equipped conflicts extremity 1 mode oregon different with immoderate benignant of negotiations connected the diplomatic track," helium added. "Sooner oregon later, immoderate parties successful a authorities of struggle beryllium down and marque an agreement. The sooner this realization comes to those who reason us, the better. We person ne'er fixed up connected this."

Russia says it is Ukraine that is refusing to talk. Kyiv says Russia indispensable halt its attacks and springiness up each territory it has seized.

Putin besides played down the value of the Patriot aerial defence system that Biden agreed to proviso to Zelenskiy, saying Russia would find a mode to antagonistic it.

He said it was "quite old" and did not enactment similar Russia's S-300 system. "An antidote volition ever beryllium found," helium said, boasting Russia would "crack" the Patriots.

"So those who bash it are doing it successful vain. It's conscionable prolonging the conflict, that's all."

Putin besides said a terms headdress imposed connected Russian lipid by Western countries, designed to bounds its quality to money the war, would not harm the Russian economy. He said helium would motion a decree aboriginal adjacent week to acceptable retired Russia's response.

(This communicative has been refiled to hole the spelling of 'reiterated' successful paragraph 6)

Reporting by Reuters Writing by Mark Trevelyan Editing by Peter Graff and Frances Kerry

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