A former adviser to President Vladimir Putin has said Russia “very much regrets” deaths in Ukraine – but repeated baseless claims that the invasion was necessary to free the country from “neo-Nazis”.

Sergey Markov told Sky News: “Ukraine is not an independent country and Volodymyr Zelenskyy is just puppet of the United States of America. It’s absolutely clear fact.”

He echoed the unfounded Kremlin allegation that it had invaded to stop “genocide” and oppression against Russian-speaking Ukrainians in separatist areas of the east.

“Ukraine democracy and serenity have been finished in 2014 when last democratically elected president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, was overthrown by military coup…” added Mr Markov.

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He was referring to the popular uprising that led to the Russia-leaning president being ousted and a new European-minded government taking over.

Mr Markov claimed tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians had been killed after 2014 – despite no evidence of this.

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“Why you support neo-Nazi terror in Ukraine during these eight years?” he said.

It comes as one academic said Mr Putin was “more than willing to negotiate” but that the West had shown “unmitigated hostility, unmitigated demonisation” towards him.

“That’s a very dangerous track to take,” said Professor Golstein, associate professor of Slavic Studies at Brown University in the US.

“They [Russia] want to get their point across, and what Putin keeps on hearing is condemnation, devil, terrorist, Satan, Hitler; I don’t think this is the way to negotiate things,” he added.

“Putin is so determined to get this point across we might end up with a third world war – people should be aware of that…”

He said war was a tragedy and that negotiations were vital – but also drew comparisons with the lead up to the First World War, saying the UK “demonised” Germany and a “whole generation of young people all over Europe was destroyed”.

Ukraine and Russian representatives have held talks in recent days, with the establishment of several humanitarian corridors, but seemingly little progress beyond that.

President Zelenskyy said last week he was open to sitting down with President Putin.

Russia has said it will immediately end the violence if it Ukraine agrees key demands, such as recognising Luhansk and Donetsk as republics and ceding Crimea to Russia.

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