The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Putin ‘playing for time’ with talks stalling
Ukraine’s president has said Russia must pull back to its pre-war positions as a first step before diplomatic talks, a negotiating line that Moscow is unlikely to agree to soon.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said he currently sees no willingness on the part of Russia to resume earnest negotiations on ending the three-month war.
“At the beginning, there was an impression that we can move ahead, that there would be a certain result or some outcome of those talks. But it all has stalled,” Mr Zelensky said via video link to attendees at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
He expressed a willingness to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin directly, but stressed that Moscow needs to make clear its willingness to engage in serious talks.
“They should demonstrate at least something like steps withdrawing their troops and equipment to the position before the 24th of February,” the day Russia’s invasion began, he said.
Mr Zelensky also made clear that Ukraine’s aim is to regain all of its lost territory. Russia might be playing for time, Mr Zelensky added.
Attending the Davos forum in person, Ukraine foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said the situation in his country’s eastern Donbas region was “extremely bad”.
He called for friendly countries to provide the Ukrainian military with multiple launch rocket systems so they could try to recapture territory.
“Every day of someone sitting in Washington, Berlin, Paris and other capitals, and considering whether they should or should not do something, costs us lives and territories,” Mr Kuleba said.
Luhansk region governor Serhiy Haidai said that another eight people have been wounded in the shelling of Sievierodonetsk.
He accused Russian troops of deliberately targeting shelters where civilians were hiding.
Injuries were also reported from the eastern town of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region yesterday.
The town’s head of administration, Ruslan Trebushkin, said on Facebook that the damage and the number of injured caused by an attack were still being assessed.
“There’s no place to live in left, everything is smashed,” said Viktoria Kurbonova, a mother-oftwo who lived in a house close to a strike.
Elsewhere, Russia has said the port of Mariupol is fully functional again after three months of fighting.
The military has cleared the port of land mines, said Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov.
In a further sign of Moscow trying to bolster its stretched military, Russian politicians passed a bill scrapping the age limit of 40 for those signing their first voluntary military contracts.