President of Guinea Bissau Umaro Sissoco Embalo has said that Putin asked him to convey a message to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. According to him, the Russian president expressed readiness for negotiations.
Embalo said this at a briefing during his visit to Kyiv. He did not specify what negotiations and on what conditions.
"Yesterday I was in Moscow, with President Putin, who asked me to convey a message, to talk to you. And, indeed, direct dialogue is extremely important for our joint actions. And I can say that it is also very important in terms of food security," he said.
Embalo added that Putin told him: "I am ready to negotiate with President Zelenskyy."
Zelenskyy replied that "Putin is ready to negotiate" after he has already attacked Ukrainian civilians with 400 drones. He also added that, according to Embalo, Putin said he wanted to "build bridges".
"The second question is who to talk to. Russia sent a message that it is necessary to unblock relations. Let's start unblocking at least our Black Sea. And the third thing is that everyone is afraid that there is a nuclear threat, they are talking about some kind of dirty bomb. So this whole threat completely comes from the Russian Federation," Zelenskyy said.
He stressed that in order to talk about dialogue, it is necessary for the state to respect the other state, its borders. So far, this is not the case, and "the desire of the Russian president to talk is a planned rhetoric that is addressed to his domestic audience and those states that have not been isolated yet".
Embalo was on a visit to Moscow yesterday. He asked Putin to provide his country with frigates.
On 26 October, he arrived in Kyiv, becoming the first African leader to visit Ukraine after 24 February.