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Nearly a month following Russia invaded Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said for the first time in an interview with multiple media on Monday night that he was ready to talk to President Vladimir Putin if he agreed to talk directly with him, as Russian troops continued to siege and bomb major Ukrainian cities. He discusses all issues, including Crimea and Donbass, subject to “security guarantees” beforehand. Zelensky warned that the Russian bombing might have “destroyed” Ukrainian cities before they fell.
Zelensky: Any compromise for a truce requires the consent of the Ukrainian people
In an interview with multiple media outlets on Monday night, Zelensky said for the first time that he was willing to “try to resolve any order,” when it came to Crimea and Udong, two areas that Russia had annexed in 2014. The question of dissatisfaction and unhappiness in Russia”. “The Crimea and Donbas issues are very difficult for all parties,” he said. “There has to be a ‘security guarantee’ and an end to hostilities, and “as soon as this obstacle is lifted, we can talk”,
He also said that any possible compromise with Russia to end the war would require the consent of the Ukrainian people. He warned: “We must do everything we can to ensure that the Donbass and Crimea are returned to us. It is a matter of time? Yes, but the question now is to stop the war.”
Zelensky also said he did not want “history to turn us and a country that would not exist” into heroes, insisting that Ukraine would not surrender even if it was destroyed. He said he was ready to “in any form” with Putin “I believe that without this meeting, we would not have been able to fully understand what they had in store to stop the war. “
Kyiv and Moscow have held several rounds of in-person and video talks since the Russian invasion, with little to no success. The day following Zelensky’s interview, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the two sides’ negotiations, “A certain process of negotiation is going on, but we want it to be more dynamic and more dynamic. Substantial. “He declined to say what the representatives of the two sides were negotiating, but said the talks were moving slower than we had hoped and lacking substance.”
Russian army ramps up attacks on civilians, UN warns of ‘extremely serious’ humanitarian situation in Mariupol
In Ukraine, the bombing of several major cities such as Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mariupol and Odessa by the Russian army since the beginning of this week has continued. Kyiv imposed a new curfew from 8 p.m. on Monday until 7 a.m. Wednesday, following authorities said on Monday that Russian bombing killed 65 Kyiv civilians and wounded more than 300. At least eight people were killed in a bombing of a shopping mall in a densely populated area of Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said. Later in the day, the Russian army acknowledged the attack, saying that Ukrainian forces used the mall to store rockets and used them once morest Russian forces. An AFP reporter saw six bodies in military uniforms pulled from the rubble, and speculated that soldiers might be resting there. This is the most destructive bombing of Kyiv by the Russian army. The humanitarian tragedy of the southern port city of Mariupol continues, following weeks of siege and bombardment, the Ukrainian government rejected a Russian ultimatum to hand over the city on Monday. According to the United Nations, the humanitarian situation on the ground is “extremely serious”, with “a fatal shortage of food, water and medicines”. The European Union’s foreign affairs chief Burrell on Monday condemned the Russian military’s actions once morest Mariupol as “a major war crime”. In addition, another video showed Russian soldiers firing on protesters in the occupied city of Kherson.
The EU increases its aid to Ukraine, and strengthens the European defense through the EU’s “Strategic Compass” document
Faced with the ongoing fighting in Ukraine, U.S. President Joe Biden has stepped up diplomatic action and will travel to Europe this week to discuss the situation in Ukraine. On Monday, Biden spoke by phone with the leaders of Germany, Italy, France, Britain and other European countries, condemning Russia’s brutal tactics and its attacks on civilians. Ukrainian Defense Ministry Reznikov said the situation was “very difficult” in the face of “a numerically superior enemy and the threat of an army ground invasion” of Moscow’s ally Belarus.
On Monday, the EU-27 Council of Foreign and Defence Ministers decided to double the funding for arms purchases in Ukraine on top of the 500 million euros provided to Ukraine. The meeting also approved the “Strategic Compass” document, which took two years of hard work and put forward an ambitious plan to strengthen Europe’s defense, including the establishment of a 5,000-strong rapid response force. Increase military spending in the EU-27 from the current 1.5% of GDP to 2%.
Biden: Putin is considering bioweapons
As the war in Ukraine stalemates, the possibility of Russia’s use of chemical and biological weapons is also rising. At a meeting with business representatives in Washington on Monday night, Biden said that Moscow’s suggestion that Ukraine had biological and chemical weapons was “a clear sign that Putin is considering the use of both types of weapons.” Biden described Putin as cornered and “forced” to the wall.”
There will be intensive diplomatic activities between Europe and the United States this weekend, and the topic of the European oil embargo on Russia may be brought up once more. Biden will fly to Brussels on Wednesday for an emergency NATO meeting and on Thursday for a European Council summit as well as a G7 meeting convened by Germany. He will then visit Poland, a NATO member and a major destination for Ukrainian refugees, on Friday, although he is understood to have no plans to travel to Ukraine.
Nearly 3.5 million people, mostly women and children, have fled Ukraine since February 24, according to data released by the United Nations on Monday.
On the Russian side, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan on Monday to warn Biden that recent comments regarding Putin as a “war criminal” have put “Russian-American relations on the brink of rupture.”
