Russia wants end to war

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow wants an end to the war in Ukraine and that this would inevitably involve a diplomatic solution.

Putin made the comments a day after US President Joe Biden hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House and promised him continued and unwavering US support.

"Our goal is not to spin the flywheel of military conflict, but, on the contrary, to end this war," Putin said late on Thursday. "We will strive for an end to this, and the sooner the better, of course."

Though the US Patriot air defence system is widely regarded as advanced, Putin dismissed it as "quite old", telling reporters that the supplies of Patriot systems to Ukraine would not contribute to settling the conflict and Moscow would find a way to counter it.

These comments drew quick US scepticism. White House spokesman John Kirby said Putin had "shown absolutely zero indication that he's willing to negotiate" an end to the war.

"Everything he (Putin) is doing on the ground and in the air bespeaks a man who wants to continue to visit violence upon the Ukrainian people (and) escalate the war," Kirby told reporters.

Russia has repeatedly said it is open to negotiations, but Ukraine and its allies suspect a ploy to buy time after a series of Russian battlefield defeats and retreats that have swung the momentum of the 10-month war in favour of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Zelensky returned home from his first wartime foreign trip buoyed by the support shown by President Joe Biden.

"We are coming back from Washington with good results. With something that will really help," Zelensky said on Telegram.

US lawmakers were expected to approve a $45 billion aid package for Ukraine later yesterday.

But Zelensky's visit leaves many questions unanswered, including how US military aid could evolve, whether US Congressional support will endure, and how the war will end. US officials say a single Patriot battery will not change the course of the war, reports Reuters.

Putin has previously said that sanctions against Russia will not make it change its position on Ukraine and Western arms supplies will only drag out the conflict.

Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told state television yesterday that Russia may cut oil output by 5-7 percent in early 2023 as it responds to price caps on its crude and oil products by halting sales to the countries that support them.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said deployment of the Patriot system in Ukraine was not conducive to a settlement.

"And this cannot prevent the Russian Federation from achieving its goals during the special military operation", he said.

The White House said on Thursday that a private Russian military company, the Wagner Group, took delivery last month of infantry rockets and missiles from North Korea to help bolster Russian forces in Ukraine.

Britain said it reached the same conclusion and condemned the move. But Wagner's head, Yevgeny Prigozhin, dismissed the talk as "gossip and speculation".

North Korea's foreign ministry denied the report, calling it "groundless", the official KCNA news agency reported yesterday.

It is the United States that is "bringing bloodshed and destruction to Ukraine by providing it with various kinds of lethal weapons", a ministry spokesperson said in a statement carried by the KCNA.

On the battlefront, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said on Facebook on Thursday that fighting in the eastern Donetsk region remained focused on Bakhmut and nearby Avdiivka.

Near Bakhmut, Russian forces shelled about 10 towns, while close to Avdiivka, they pounded the towns of Kostyantyivka and Maryinka as well as Vodyane and Nevelske, the Ukrainian military said.