As US negotiates new Ukraine-Russia talks, Zelenksyy says attack shows Putin

Kiev— Negotiators from Russia and Ukraine participated in a third round of US-brokered peace talks on Tuesday, but there were little hope for an imminent breakthrough in an agreement to end the deadliest war on European soil in 80 years.

Negotiators met in Geneva a week earlier Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine was ready to enter its fifth year.

Expectations for the negotiations in Switzerland were low because kyiv and Moscow remain far apart on two key issues: Russia’s demand that it be granted internationally recognized ownership of occupied territory in eastern Ukraine and what steps have been taken for kyiv’s Western partners. — the most important thing is the United States — to ensure their future safety once a ceasefire is implemented.

Russia currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory, but over nearly four years of devastating war, those territorial gains are believed to have cost Russia more than a million casualties.

Despite this enormous cost, Putin has refused to give in to his demand that a huge swath of eastern Ukraine be formally handed over to Russia as part of any peace deal.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been consistent in rejecting such sacrifice to end the war. On Monday he posted on social media that it would be a “big mistake to allow the attacker to take anything.”

On this point he has been supported by several European leaders. and the head of NATObut the Trump administration has sometimes put pressure on Ukraine accept some territorial concession to achieve a peace agreement.

Ukraine, which was first invaded by Russia in 2014, eight years before Putin ordered the full-scale assault on February 24, 2022, wants its partners in Washington and Europe to commit to preventing new Russian attacks. — even as the incumbent shows no signs of relenting despite the diplomacy taking place in Geneva.

Ukraine’s air force said Tuesday that Russia launched 396 drones and 29 missiles overnight. He said 25 of the missiles and 367 drones were intercepted, but Zelenskyy pointed to the latest attack as further evidence that Moscow is “ignoring peace efforts.”

“Strength of pressure on the Russian Federation — “Sanctions pressure and rapid and sustained support to the Ukrainian military and our air defense would be needed” to support diplomacy, he said in a social media post.

The war launched by Putin almost four years ago forced millions of Ukrainians from their homes and killed about 15,000 civilians, according to the United Nations.

This winter, the weather in Ukraine has been particularly harsh, with temperatures well below zero degrees, and part of Russia’s strategy has been to attack Ukraine’s power grid. leaving civilians with an interrupted supply of electricity and heat in freezing conditions.