MOSCOW, July 25, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Kazakhstan's president Kassym-Jomart 
Tokayev told Russia's Vladimir Putin Saturday that the Ukraine war should 
end, calling for the conflict to be "frozen", in a rare such face-to-face 
comment to the Russian leader.

Kazakhstan is an ally of Russia but has never expressed support for Moscow's 
Ukraine offensive, which has rattled the Kremlin's partners in Central Asia.

"How to get out of this situation? Nobody knows, because there are the 
positions of both sides. But, on the other hand, there is such a moment and 
possibility to freeze all this," Tokayev told Putin at a Russian-Kazakh 
summit in Siberia's Omsk.

He added: "It is a shame, young people are dying... All this has to be 
stopped."

"I chose to express my modest opinion because people knew that I planned to 
be in Omsk," he added, sitting next to Putin.

Tokayev told Putin -- who launched Moscow's offensive in 2022 -- that the 
roots of the Russia-Ukraine war "are not completely understandable for many, 
including for us."

He said that while the origins of the Armenia-Azerbaijan wars were "clear" 
but "here it is very difficult to understand."

Tokayev suggested going back to 2022 Istanbul agreements and "then move 
forward to long-awaited peace."

Putin responded by saying he will inform Tokayev on the war during their 
meeting.

Diplomatic talks to end more than four years of war have stalled and Putin 
has repeatedly said Moscow intends to seize the rest of east Ukraine by 
force.