Business news from Ukraine

HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER ORBAN INVITED PUTIN TO BUDAPEST FOR TALKS WITH ZELENSKY – EUROPEAN MEDIA

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, in a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, suggested that he hold talks in Budapest with his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky, European media reported.
“The answer was yes, but the Russian president says he has certain conditions,” Orban was quoted as saying by the media.
According to them, Orban said that he also invited French President Emmanuel Marcon and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Hungary for talks.
In turn, Bloomberg reported that, in addition, during the conversation, the Hungarian Prime Minister spoke in favor of a ceasefire in Ukraine.
According to Bloomberg, Orban also said that he did not refuse cooperation with Russia in the nuclear field.
In addition, according to Euronews, when asked whether Hungary would pay Russia for gas in rubles, Orban replied that “paying in rubles will not be a problem for us.” “If the Russians want to be paid in rubles, we will pay in rubles,” the Hungarian prime minister said.

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ARAKHAMIA: MEETING OF PRESIDENTS OF UKRAINE AND RUSSIA WILL MOST LIKELY TAKE PLACE IN TURKEY

Presidents of Ukraine and Russia Vladimir Zelensky and Vladimir Putin “with a high degree of probability” will meet in Turkey, head of the Ukrainian delegation at the talks David Arakhamia said during a telethon on Ukrainian television on Saturday.

According to him, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “called both us and Vladimir Putin yesterday, and he seemed to confirm for his part that they were ready to organize a meeting in the near future.”

“Neither the date nor the place is known, but we believe that the place with a high degree of probability will be Istanbul or Ankara,” Arakhamia said.

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ZELENSKY IN INTERVIEW WITH CNN: I’M READY FOR NEGOTIATIONS WITH PUTIN, THEIR FAILURE COULD LEAD TO THIRD WORLD WAR

The Ukrainian side is ready for negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with CNN.
“I am ready to negotiate with him. I have been ready for the last two years. And I think that without negotiations we will not be able to end this war. I think that we should use any format, any chance, to be able to negotiate, an opportunity to talk to Putin. But if these attempts fail, it will mean that this is the third world war,” Zelensky said.
At the same time, he stressed that Ukraine under no circumstances can give up its territorial integrity.
“No compromises related to our territorial integrity and our sovereignty, and the Ukrainian people spoke about this, they did not meet Russian soldiers with a bouquet of flowers, they met them bravely, they met them with weapons in their hands,” Zelensky said.
“If we were a NATO member, a war wouldn’t have started. I’d like to receive security guarantees for my country, for my people. If NATO members are ready to see us in the alliance, then do it immediately because people are dying on a daily basis. But if you are not ready to preserve the lives of our people, if you just want to see us straddle two worlds, if you want to see us in this dubious position where we don’t understand whether you can accept us or not — you cannot place us in this situation, you cannot force us to be in this limbo,” the head of state said.
“I requested them personally to say directly that we are going to accept you into NATO in a year or two or five, just say it directly and clearly, or just say no. And the response was very clear, you’re not going to be a NATO member, but publicly, the doors will remain open,” he said.

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LEONID KUCHMA: PUTIN-ZELENSKY MEETING WILL BE COMPLICATED FROM ALL POINTS OF VIEW

A possible future meeting of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with Russian President Vladimir Putin will be complicated, said Leonid Kuchma, the second president of Ukraine, ex-head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG).
“Everything is possible in life. The main thing is the desire of our president … We will be waiting for a signal from the other side. But this meeting is too complicated from all points of view. It seems to me that I could be wrong – the conversation will be in different languages,” Kuchma said in an interview with journalists at the YES Brainstorming forum.
According to him, it is not yet clear whether Putin is ready to meet in the framework of problems that now exist in Ukrainian-Russian relations and to take “specific steps.”
Kuchma added that the big question is whether it is worth “just going nowhere and coming with nothing.”
YES Brainstorming is a new format event for the Yalta European Strategy (YES) in partnership with the Victor Pinchuk Foundation. The topic of the meeting is entitled “After COVID Means Before the Disaster? Steps to Survival.”
The annual meetings of the Yalta European Strategy, a public organization that would facilitate the process of Ukraine’s accession to the EU, have been held since 2004 at the initiative of Victor Pinchuk. YES meetings have become an open platform for discussing new ideas and views on the development paths of Europe, Ukraine and the whole world.

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RUSSIAN-AMERICAN SUMMIT IN GENEVA ON JUNE 16 TO LAST FIVE HOURS

The Russian-American summit in Geneva on June 16 will last five hours, according to the protocol program.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s arrival at the Villa La Grande and a joint photo session with United States President Joe Biden and Swiss President Guy Parmelin are scheduled for 1:00 p.m. local time, according to documents released by the Kremlin press service ahead of the event.
The conversation between the U.S. and Russian presidents on the ground floor in a library is due to begin at 1:15 p.m.
The Russian-U.S. talks in an expanded format are schedule to begin at 2:30 p.m.
These talks will resume after a break at 4:15 p.m.
The Russian president’s press conference is due to begin at 6:00 p.m.

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BIDEN AND PUTIN TO NEGOTIATE RULES OF CONFRONTATION BETWEEN US AND RUSSIA, INCLUDING UKRAINE – POLITICAL SCIENTISTS

A meeting between U.S. President Joseph Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin, scheduled for June 16 in Geneva, will be devoted to developing rules for their confrontation that are manageable and predictable for both sides, both in Ukraine and on a number of other international issues, political scientist believes, Director of the Institute of Global Strategies Vadym Karasiov said.
“The point of the Biden-Putin meeting will be to develop rules for the confrontation between the United States and Russia so that this confrontation is manageable. This also applies to Ukraine, judging by Putin’s recent interview. It should be understood that Ukraine remains for a long time a territory where the interests of the United States and Russia will come into contact. It is important for Biden and Putin to understand the limits of this influence and to make the overlapping of their interests more predictable and manageable and not turn into direct or even military clashes,” “Karasiov told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, it will also be important for the Russian President to hear from the U.S. President about his plans to provide Ukraine with the NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP).
According to political scientist, Director of the Ukrainian Barometer sociological service Viktor Nebozhenko, “one should not expect sensations from the meeting between Biden and Putin, although the background itself and the upcoming negotiations will be quite sharp.”
“There are exaggerated expectations against an overly aggressive background. Biden fears the Republican party, which, criticizing him, is gaining strength. In turn, Putin fears losing control over gas transit, as once happened with Gorbachev [Soviet President Mykhail Gorbachev]. As a result of their meeting, there will be no easy decisions on certain issues. There will be an intricate text of the communique, a general press conference, but we will not get something that would give us the opportunity to draw quick conclusions,” Nebozhenko said.
According to the political scientist, “sensations should be expected by the autumn.” “After Putin and Biden, other players will come to the fore, namely, China, the EU countries, even Ukraine, each with its own political party.”
According to expert of Hardarika Strategic Consulting Corporation Kostiantyn Matviyenko, in the conversation between the presidents of Russia and the United States around Ukraine, the key issue will be the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline on the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
“They will try to find such a mechanism so that Russia does not ‘lose face’ in the gas pipeline construction, and the United States can show that they ensure the security of Ukraine,” he told the agency.
Matviyenko said the leaders of Russia and the United States will focus, in addition to Ukraine, on the issue of resuming the nuclear deal with Iran, the Russian initiative to ease sanctions, “since they are” hitting “its technical capabilities in the military sector,” as well as Russia’s access to world food markets and seeking informal quota arrangements.
According to PhD in Political Science, political scientist Ihor Petrenko, the talks between the presidents of the United States and Russia “will most likely focus on environmental issues, since it is in this that they can reach consensus and progress.”
“If you recall, Putin devoted a significant part of his address to the Federal Assembly in April to ecology. It was a kind of pass towards Biden. And ecology is one of the electoral promises of the U.S. leader, important for his political agenda,” he told Interfax-Ukraine.

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