“It has been pointed out that the Russian armed forces have long avoided high-precision missile strikes on certain targets in Ukraine, but such measures have become necessary and inevitable in the face of provocative attacks from kyiv,” the Kremlin said in a statement. , summing up Vladimir Putin’s remarks to Olaf Scholz during their first interview since mid-September.
According to Mr. Putin, kyiv is responsible for the explosions which partly destroyed the Russian Crimean bridge and Russian energy installations, and therefore Moscow is within its rights by bombing Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, leaving it cold and dark millions of civilians.
“In Ukraine, Vladimir Putin is currently facing a situation he has never experienced before”
Mr Putin, who launched his assault on February 24, once more complained regarding Western financial and military support for Ukraine, supplies that enabled kyiv to inflict humiliating defeats on Russia.
Therefore for the Russian president, the position of the West is “destructive”, because strong in political, financial and military support from the West, “kyiv rejects the idea of any negotiation” and “incites the Ukrainian radical nationalists to commit crimes bloody”. Vladimir Putin thus called on Mr. Scholz “to review his approach in the context of the Ukrainian events”.
For his part, Olaf Scholz asked Vladimir Putin to withdraw his troops from Ukraine to reach a “diplomatic solution”. During an hour-long telephone conversation between the two leaders, Mr. Scholz “insisted with the Russian president that a diplomatic solution be found as soon as possible, which implies the withdrawal of Russian troops”, indicated government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in a statement.
The Chancellor also condemned to Mr. Putin “Russian air attacks once morest civilian infrastructure in Ukraine and underlined Germany’s determination to help Ukraine ensure its defense capability once morest Russian aggression”, the statement continued. . The two leaders, who agreed to “stay in contact”, also “discussed the world food situation, which is particularly tense due to the war of Russian aggression”. They “underlined the important role of the recently extended cereals agreement under the aegis of the United Nations”, the statement concluded.
The agreement allowing Ukrainian grain exports from Ukrainian ports was renewed on November 17 for the four winter months, alleviating concerns regarding a possible global food crisis.
The Russian president had decreed the annexation at the end of September of four regions of Ukraine, although he does not control them, in addition to the Crimea annexed in 2014. kyiv for its part rejects any negotiation with Putin, without respect for its integrity territory, Crimea included.
Militarily, the Russian army suffered several defeats, having been forced to withdraw from the north of the country in April, then from part of the northeast in September and finally from part of the south in November. Since October, the Russian forces have therefore adopted the tactic of bombing the installations supplying electricity and heat to the country, even as winter is settling in Ukraine.
Finally, a little earlier on Friday, the Kremlin had rejected the conditions mentioned the day before by US President Joe Biden who said he was “ready” to discuss with Vladimir Putin if the latter “seeks a way to end the war” in Ukraine, fixing in passing as the first condition a withdrawal of Russian troops.
The US president “de facto said that negotiations would be possible only following Putin leaves Ukraine”, which Moscow “obviously rejects”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “The military operation continues,” he insisted.
