Putin says talks with Kyiv ‘at a dead end’
Russian President adds conflict with the West was inevitable and that Russia is too large to isolate from the rest of the world
MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin said peace talks with Ukraine are “at a dead end,” vowing to continue Russia’s invasion.
There’s been no word of progress for days in video-link peace talks after Ukraine accused Russian troops of carrying out war crimes including killing unarmed civilians in Bucha and other towns in the north. In his first public comments on the alleged atrocities, Putin first compared them to US attacks on cities like Raqqa in Syria and then called the Bucha claims “fake”.
The more than seven-week offensive is going “according to plan,” Putin said at a joint press conference at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Putin insisted on Tuesday that his military action aimed to protect people in areas in eastern Ukraine controlled by Moscowbacked rebels and to “ensure Russia’s own security”.
He said Russia “had no other choice” but to launch what he calls a “special military operation,” and vowed it would “continue until its full completion and the fulfillment of the tasks that have been set”.
Negotiations continued between the two sides by video link after the last in-person meeting in Istanbul on Mar. 29. There’s been no public confirmation of talks this week. Putin accused Ukraine of backing off earlier concessions, but Kyiv’s public position has not changed and it blames Russia for the lack of progress.
Russia’s economy has withstood the West’s sanctions “blitzkreig,” Putin said, citing the recovery of the rouble’s exchange rate.
But he conceded that logistics and payment systems remain a weakness and the long-term impact of western limits could be more painful.
Putin said that Russia has no intention to isolate itself and added that foreign powers wouldn’t succeed in isolating it. He said that “it’s certainly impossible to isolate anyone in the world of today, especially such a huge country as Russia.” Putin added that “we will work with those of our partners who want to cooperate.”
The Russian president said he hoped that “good sense” will ultimately prevail in the West, leading to the easing of sanctions. He also said that while rising inflation related to the crisis “inevitably” will cause political problems for Western leaders, Russian public support for his policy remains strong.
Hours after he spoke, Kyiv said on Tuesday that ongoing talks with Russia to end the war were “extremely difficult”.
“The Russian side adheres to its traditional tactics of public pressure on the negotiation process, including through certain public statements,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak said in written comments to reporters.
“It is clear that the emotional background today in the negotiation process is heavy. It is clear that the Ukrainian delegation works exclusively within a framework that is pro-Ukrainian and transparent,” Podolyak wrote.
For now, Putin’s forces are gearing up for a major offensive in the Donbas. which has been torn by fighting between Russian-allied separatists and Ukrainian forces since 2014, and where Russia has recognised the separatists’ claims of independence. Russia is shelling Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk round the clock and Moscow is now in the final stages of regrouping its forces in the area, Donetsk’s governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a senior defence official said the United States cannot confirm the use of chemical agents in Ukraine’s port city of Mariupol at this time. Ukrainian deputy defense minister Hanna Malyar said the government was checking unverified information that Russia may have used chemical weapons while besieging Mariupol.
Attack on Ukraine