Neither the arrival of Orthodox Easter and nor the threat of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, to abandon the truce process between Ukraine and Russia seem to have mobilized peace conversations between both contestants. The Russian army has launched an attack on Ukrainian territory with eight missiles and 87 drones in the early hours of Saturday, causing damage to the Odessa (South), Sumi (North), Donetsk and Zaporiyia (East) regions. Thus, the American president has been firm this morning when Neither the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, nor the Russian councilor, Vladimir Putin, are “playing” with himand recalled that the White House could disregard the process if negotiations do not show advances in the next few days, increasingly moving Russian and Ukrainians from the promise of a high fire.
“If for any reason one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we will simply say that they are fools, horrible people. And we will simply let it pass. But, hopefully, we will not have to do it,” said the US president in statements collected by the newspaper The Guardian. Already on Friday, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, threatened from Paris with the end of American mediation if the peace agreement was not “viable in the short term”, and that it was now a turn of Ukrainians and Russians to demonstrate that peace is feasible. “If it is not, then we will continue with something else,” he said. However, Trump has assured this Saturday that both Russia and Ukraine “They are still showing enthusiasm” in putting an end to war.
Anyway, and despite the United States ultimatum, Russia has Attacted Ukrainian territory at dawn and Hevchenko has also taken the town of Shevchenkolocated in the Donetsk region and strategic relevance by its lithium and coal mines. As reported by the Russian Ministry of Defense, the people, located on the outskirts of Pokrovsk’s bastion – the objective of the current Russian offensive in Donbás – has been conquered by military units of the Southern Military Group of the Russian Army.
Russia’s demands for high fire
Since Trump’s arrival at the White House had speculated that the initial objective was for Moscow and kyiv to agree on a Cessation of hostilities on April 20 as a prelude to the beginning of the negotiations for a peaceful arrangement of the conflict. However, the reality on the ground is that the 30 -day energy truce also won this week without either sides having respected it from day one or showed interest in prolonging it. Meanwhile, The Russians continue their recent offensive In the Ukrainian regions of Sumi and Járkov in order to create a security strip, and the Ukrainians refuse to leave the territory of the Russian region of Kursk.
In this sense, from the Kremlin they point out that they are In favor of “dialogue and arrangement of this conflict”but also of “the defense of their own interests”, after having assured this week that the control over the four Ukrainian regions annexed by Russia in 2022 is not negotiable, since, according to the Constitution, they are “inalienable part of the Russian Federation.” Something that the United States emissary in negotiations, Steve Witkoff, has described as one of the main keys to this negotiating process.
Also, in recent days several senior Russian officials, such as Foreign Minister Serguéi Lavrov, and the head of the External Espionage Service, Serguéi Narishkin, have insisted that the demands for the truce presented by Putin in June 2024 They are still standing. Among them, is the Ukraine demilitarization until they have less than 100,000 soldiers and proclaim their neutrality, without any deployment of European peace troops in their territory, or Nor a future entry into NATO.
On the other hand, Russia demands that kyiv consumes “its desnazification”, a demand that, in reality, implies a change of government in Ukraine and a repeal of the allegedly discriminatory laws towards the Russian language and culture. In turn, the Ukrainian executive must recognize Russia’s sovereignty over the four regions mentioned – Crima, Donetsk, Lugansk, Jersón and Zaporiyia – and withdraw their troops from those territories. Supposedly, after meeting these demands, peace negotiations would begin. Of course, at the same time, from Russia they maintain that kyiv does not represent the Russian regions of Odesa and Mykolaiv, so the Ukrainian authorities do not rule out that Moscow seeks to take them under their flag.
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