Putin says Russia doesn't oppose Ukraine joining the EU

By Dmitry Antonov

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Moscow had never opposed Ukraine's potential membership of the European Union, and that he thought it was possible to find a consensus on ensuring the security of both Russia and Ukraine.

U.S. President Donald Trump said after his summit with Putin in Alaska last month that he thinks Putin is "tired" of the war in Ukraine but that it remains to be seen if peace can be secured to end Europe's deadliest conflict since World War Two.

Ukraine and the leaders of Western European powers have said they do not believe Putin is serious about peace in Ukraine, and have warned that if Russia wins the Ukraine war then Putin could attack Europe and the U.S.-led NATO military alliance.

In some of his most dovish remarks since the Alaska summit, Putin, speaking in China, pushed back against those claims, which he cast as "horror stories" and "hysteria" pumped up by incompetent people seeking to cast Russia as an enemy.

Putin said Russia had been forced to act in Ukraine by what he cast as the West's attempt with the help of NATO to try to absorb the entire post-Soviet space.

"As for Ukraine's membership of the EU, we have never objected to this," Putin told Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico at talks in China. "As for NATO, this is another issue... Our position here is well known: we consider this unacceptable for ourselves."

A potential security guarantee for Ukraine - backed by the United States and Western European powers - is one of the toughest parts of any future peace settlement, according to diplomats and officials involved in discussions.

Ukraine says that it is not for Russia to decide what Kyiv can or cannot join, while NATO says that Russia can have no veto over membership of the alliance which was formed in 1949 to counter the threat from the Soviet Union.

Putin said that he had discussed Ukraine's security at his August 15 summit with Trump.

"There are options for ensuring Ukraine's security in the event of an end to the conflict," Putin said. "And it seems to me that there is an opportunity to find consensus here."

Russia, Putin said, was ready to cooperate with the United States at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest nuclear plant. Russia took control of it in March 2022, shortly after its invasion of Ukraine.

"We can cooperate with American partners at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant," Putin said, adding that the issue had been discussed indirectly with Washington and that he was even prepared to work with Ukraine at the plant.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge/Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)