Routed Russians ‘are begging for peace talks’
Zelensky visits liberated town as Moscow’s soldiers flee
DESPERATE Russian officials are begging Ukraine for peace talks, it was revealed last night, as Volodymyr Zelensky made a surprise visit to a town retaken by his forces this week.
The Ukrainian president posed for pictures with jubilant troops in Izium, part of the north-eastern territory they have regained in a stunning counter-offensive.
Ukraine claimed the Kremlin has been so shocked by the lightning advance that its leaders want to return to the negotiating table. Olga Stefanishyna, a Ukrainian deputy prime minister, said Russia had sought to reopen talks on ending the six-month war.
‘There’s been sort of a public and unpublic outreach from various groups of the Russian officials,’ she said.
It is not clear whether this was at the
‘We are moving in only one direction’
direction of Vladimir Putin, or an initiative by other leaders despairing at the situation on the ground.
Miss Stefanishyna said the move was rebuffed by the Ukrainian government, which hopes to retake more territory before sitting down for talks.
‘Given the gravity of the crimes Russia commits on our soil – which get more and more serious every month – the leverage for negotiations is far from the [ones that took place] in February,’ she said. ‘It is absolutely essential that we use this momentum for the massive deoccupation of our territory. Then we will be ready for negotiations.’
Russian state TV, which usually toes the Kremlin line, has also floated the idea of negotiations since Putin’s soldiers were chased out of the northeast Kharkiv region.
But Mr Zelensky has made it clear that retaking Crimea in the south, along with the eastern Donbas region, is a priority for his troops ahead of any compromise. Both were seized by Moscow’s armed forces in 2014. Mr Zelensky made the daring visit to Izium, the gateway to the Donbas and just nine miles from the frontline, to meet Ukrainian troops and even pose for selfies.
‘We are moving in only one direction – forward and towards victory,’ he said. ‘Our blue-yellow flag is already flying in de- occupied Izium. And it will be so in every Ukrainian city and village.’
Video footage shared by a Ukrainian diplomat showed the
head of state briefly breaking off a speech to soldiers as a bomb exploded nearby.
Other footage from the region showed the bounty left by fleeing Russian soldiers, including a large cache of ammunition hidden under a carpet. It is thought they left more than 100 tanks and dozens of armoured vehicles.
Mr Zelensky’s visit is the latest embarrassment for Putin, whose troops had seized the town to use as a logistic hub for sending weapons to the nearby Donbas.
Just 10,000 of 40,000 residents remain in Izium, where blackened buildings peppered by the shrapnel of Russian shelling bear the scars of the six-month war.
‘The view is very shocking, but it is not shocking for me,’ Mr Zelensky said. ‘Because we began to see the same pictures from Bucha, from the first de-occupied territories. The same destroyed buildings, killed people.’
Authorities discovered mass graves and evidence of war crimes in Bucha, near Kyiv, after Russian troops fled the town in March.
In recent days, Ukrainian forces have taken back control of an area the size of the Greek island of Crete. The reclaimed territory is home to 150,000 people across 300 towns and cities.