Following the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Russian President Vladimir Putin held a press conference, where he touched upon the ongoing Ukraine conflict.
"We cannot allow this ceasefire to be used by the enemy to improve its position... We need to ensure that the opposite side takes steps that are inevitable for the Russian Federation, so a ceasefire is impossible without such an agreement," Putin told reporters.
The president also emphasized that Russia has never refused to negotiate with Ukraine.
"We have always been in favour of negotiations, as you well know, we have never given up on them. The only question is that it seems unlikely to me that the end to the conflict will be achieved through mediation alone," he noted.
Putin elaborated that it is impossible due to the fact that such a mediator is unlikely to have the authority to sign the final document.