Putin deliberately setting conditions that Ukraine cannot accept - Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this in an interview with public broadcasters, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"It is no coincidence that he sets the conditions that Ukraine must reject. That is, it is a kind of trap so that we could not agree and then they can say that we did not want peace," he said.

Zelensky reiterated his readiness to hold talks with Putin, but warned that if these talks fail, it would mean a "third world war."

"I meant that Putin was not going to end this war, that in his plans Ukraine is just a part of the result he was talking about. [He wants] to go further into Europe and, first of all, to take the Baltic countries that were part of the Soviet Union, as well as other countries that had a Soviet army, where the Soviet Union had influence," he said.

"I told our partners about this, and I told Mr. [German Chancellor Olaf] Scholz that you can get on your borders the Russian military if they move on. But we understand that this will then be a third world war," Zelensky said.