Sergei Shoigu Cites Nuclear Threat in Kursk to Block Negotiations with Ukraine

In an interview with Russian propaganda media “Russia-24” former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, now Secretary of Russia’s Security Council, said negotiations with Ukraine are not possible as long as Ukrainian troops remain on Russian territory, specifically in Kursk.

“We will naturally not conduct any negotiations with them until we remove them from our territory,” Shoigu said.

He claimed that Ukraine had a “desire and intention to seize the Kursk nuclear power plant” to carry out “nuclear terror.”

“Fortunately, this did not succeed,” he added.

Shoigu noted that before the Ukrainian army's invasion of Kursk, Russian President Vladimir Putin had supposedly agreed to Turkey's proposal to refrain from strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, commercial, and civilian shipping.

“Turkey offered us, saying that such a proposal came from Ukraine, that we would commit to not striking energy facilities, nuclear energy facilities, and commercial civilian shipping in the Black Sea,” Shoigu said that Putin had agreed.

At the same time, he claimed that Ukraine had rejected this agreement.

“Are we ready to negotiate with them [Ukrainians]? We have never refused this, but not based on some ephemeral demands, but on the documents that were agreed upon and actually initialed in Istanbul,” Putin said at the Eastern Economic Forum, according to the publication “Agentstvo”.

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The publication notes that Putin’s statement could indicate a shift in his position on peace talks. Earlier this summer, he had set the condition for negotiations as the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from annexed Ukrainian territories.

After the invasion of the Kursk region, he declared negotiations impossible. However, during the “Conversations on Important Topics” session in Kyzyl on Sept 2, Putin suggested there was the possibility of peace talks with Ukraine if Kyiv withdraws from the Kursk region.