‘Putin not sincere about talks now’
KYIV/WASHINGTON: Russian President Vladimir Putin is not sincere about peace talks with Ukraine at this time, a top US diplomat said on Saturday after meeting President Volodymyr Zelensky and other senior Ukrainian officials in Kyiv.
US under secretary for political affairs Victoria Nuland visited Ukraine to show support at a time when Russia is trying to destroy the country’s energy infrastructure.
“Diplomacy is obviously everyone’s objective but you have to have a willing partner,” she told reporters. “And it’s very clear, whether it’s the energy attacks, whether it’s the rhetoric out of the Kremlin and the general attitude, that Putin is not sincere or ready for that.”
US President Joe Biden said on Thursday he was prepared to speak to Putin if the Russian leader was interested in ending the war. But the idea died quickly when the Kremlin said the West must recognise Moscow’s declared annexation of four Ukrainian regions.
US says reduced tempo in fighting to continue
US intelligence expects the reduced tempo in fighting in Ukraine to continue in the next several months and sees no evidence of a reduced Ukrainian will to resist, despite attacks on its power grid and other critical winter infrastructure, the Director of National Intelligence said on Saturday.
“We’re seeing a kind of a reduced tempo already of the conflict ... and we expect that’s likely to be what we see in the coming months,” Avril Haines told the annual Reagan National Defence Forum in California.
Meanwhile, Russia is working on the possibility of banning oil supplies subject to a Western-imposed price cap, Russian deputy prime minister Alexander Novak said on Sunday.
“We are working on mechanisms to prohibit the use of a price cap instrument, regardless of what level is set, because such interference could further destabilise the market,” the deputy prime minister said.