After more than a week of war, Ukraine is under massive pressure and blames the West. What can talks with Moscow bring under these circumstances?
Kyiv/Moscow – After another night of war, Ukraine is preparing for a new round of negotiations with Russia on a ceasefire. But fighting and war rhetoric continued unabated during the night.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy bitterly reproached NATO for not wanting to get involved militarily in the conflict. In a live broadcast of solidarity demos in Europe, Zelenskyy warned: “If Ukraine falls, everyone will fall.”
The war events
According to the Ukrainian army, Russian troops continue their offensive with air support and the use of high-precision weapons. The Russian side is trying to encircle the capital Kyiv and the metropolis Kharkiv, it said. In the east, Russian troops plan to create a land corridor from the separatist regions of Luhansk and Donetsk to the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia, and the defense of the city of Mariupul is also under pressure. But Ukrainian forces are fighting back and inflicting defeats on attackers.
The account cannot be independently verified, nor can Russian information. The Russian agency Tass reported that the Ukrainian army had shelled two settlements in the self-declared People’s Republic of Luhansk three times within 24 hours. Details on possible victims or damage are not yet available.
Reliable information about the war is likely to become even more sparse. Because in response to a new media law in Russia, several international broadcasters and agencies are partially or completely shutting down their work there, including CNN, the BBC and the Canadian broadcaster CBC. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed several laws on Friday evening, according to which “false information” about the Russian armed forces could be imprisoned. In the Ukrainian war zone, on the other hand, journalists are in danger. A TV crew from British broadcaster Sky News came under fire near Kyiv.
Third round of negotiations between the warring parties
The announced third round of negotiations on a ceasefire is expected to take place again this weekend in Belarus. An exact date was not initially given. Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia does not want to partition Ukraine.
The Tass agency quoted him as saying that Moscow is about security guarantees. He hopes that Ukraine will accept the Russian demands during the negotiations. One of the goals Putin has set is to depose the Ukrainian leadership.
Ukraine disappointed in NATO
Ukraine recently asked NATO to enforce a no-fly zone over the war zone. The Western alliance rejects this because it could entail direct participation in hostilities. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg made this clear again on Friday. The Ukrainian President Zelenskyj reacted to this with disappointment. The alliance gave the green light for further bombing of Ukrainian towns and villages, he said in a video speech.
In his live broadcast of demonstrators in Frankfurt and several other European cities, Zelenskyy called on the people of Europe: “Don’t be silent, take to the streets, support Ukraine.” Numerous peace demonstrations have been announced in several cities in Germany, with Hamburg alone with around 50,000 participants expected. dpa
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