Facts about Russia-Ukraine conflict: Possible meeting between Putin, Zelensky not ruled out -- Kremlin
The Russia-Ukraine conflict continues on Saturday as relevant parties are working to broker a peaceful solution. Following are the latest developments of the situation:
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that a possible meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not ruled out.
"Yes, it is indeed possible in theory," Peskov told reporters. "But first, both delegations and ministers must do their part so that the presidents do not meet for the process and for the sake of conversation, but meet for the result."
Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of social networks Facebook and Instagram, said on Thursday that it has allowed posts with violent speeches towards Russians in response to Russia's military operation in Ukraine.
Instagram has distributed materials which call for committing violent acts against Russian citizens, including military personnel, Russia's telecom watchdog Roskomnadzor said Friday in a brief statement.
Peskov said Friday that Russia will investigate if the social media platforms allowed publications of calls for violence against Russians, and it will be necessary to ban the applications if they allow hate speech.
The U.S. government will revoke Russia's most-favored nation trade status amid the Ukraine crisis, the White House said Friday, noting that it will work with Group of Seven (G7) countries and the European Union to roll out new sanctions.
U.S. President Joe Biden and the other G7 leaders "will announce new economic actions" to "further isolate Russia from the global financial system," the White House said in a statement.
In a meeting on Friday with his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, Putin said as the West imposed restrictions on Russia, "this is indeed a time of opportunity when we must strengthen our technological and economic sovereignty."
"The Soviet Union indeed always lived in conditions of sanctions but developed and achieved enormous success," Putin said, stressing that "we have of course become stronger in this respect."
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Putin said Friday that he supported the idea of allowing volunteers from abroad to provide military assistance to Donbass.
Western countries and Ukraine do not disguise the fact that they are gathering mercenaries and sending them to Ukraine, Putin said at a meeting with permanent members of Russia's Security Council.
