Ukraine: Kyiv relies on the military instead of negotiations

Dhe Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced a new offensive. According to their own statements, the Ukrainian army has already established a bridgehead at one point in the east of the country in order to be able to advance further. In view of the current military situation, but also because of the large number of war crimes that they accuse the Russian military of, Zelenskyj’s advisers believe that negotiations are pointless.

In Moscow, meanwhile, one of the country’s best-known pop singers criticized the Russian war of aggression surprisingly harshly. Pop diva Alla Pugacheva, who recently returned to Russia from Israel, has asked the Justice Department to label her a “foreign agent” because she is pro-peace. The 208th day of the war in Ukraine begins on Monday.

Selenskyj speaks of a new offensive

Zelenskyy announced new attacks on the territory occupied by Russian troops in Ukraine. “Perhaps it seems to some of you that after a series of victories there has been silence, but it is not silence,” Zelenskyy said in his daily video address on Sunday. Rather, it is the preparation for the next offensive, the aim of which is the recapture of Mariupol, Melitopol and Cherson.

According to Zelenskyy, Ukraine will not only focus on the areas it controlled before the Russian attack in February. The 44-year-old announced that the territories of the Moscow-backed separatists in the east of the country and cities in Crimea, which had been annexed by Russia since 2014, would also be recaptured. “Because all of Ukraine must be free.”

After invading Ukraine on February 24, Russia has seized large areas in the south and east of the country. Moscow still occupies around 125,000 square kilometers – that’s about a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, including the Crimean peninsula.

Kyiv rejects negotiations as pointless

Kyiv has ruled out negotiations and a meeting between Russian Presidents Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy at this point in time. “In short, the negotiation process itself and a face-to-face meeting between the presidents doesn’t make sense right now,” external adviser to the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Mykhailo Podoliak, said on Sunday, according to Ukrainian media.

Podoljak gave three reasons why talks are pointless at this stage. First, Russia will try to record and legitimize land gains. Second, maintaining the status quo is only serving Russia as a breathing space so that it can then continue the attacks on the new line. And third, Russia must be held accountable for crimes committed on Ukrainian territory. Negotiations are therefore only possible once the Russian troops have withdrawn from Ukrainian territory. Then the level of reparation payments and the handing over of war criminals could be negotiated, Podoljak said. Russia and Ukraine had negotiated a peace settlement shortly after the Russian invasion, but had not come to a final agreement.