Russia has reaffirmed its terms for peace talks with Ukraine. After President Vladimir Putin indicated a willingness to talk, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said harshly that Ukraine must meet Moscow’s demands, otherwise the Russian military will do so. Lavrov reiterated well-known demands such as the recognition of the occupied territories, which make up around a fifth of Ukraine’s national territory, the “demilitarization” and “denazification” of the rest of Ukraine, and security guarantees.
“The thing is quite simple: fulfill it for your own good. Otherwise, the matter will be decided by the Russian army,” Lavrov said in an interview with the Russian news agency TASS published on Tuesday night. Lavrov also accused the West of wanting to destroy Russia. “It is no secret to anyone that the strategic goal of the United States and its NATO allies is to defeat Russia on the battlefield in order to significantly weaken or even destroy our country,” he said in the TASS interview.
He blamed the government of President Joe Biden for the strained relations with the United States. No new initiatives for arms control of nuclear weapons or for security guarantees are planned. Lavrov also urged the West to exercise maximum restraint in the “highly sensitive” nuclear area. Putin said on Sunday that Russia was ready to negotiate with all parties involved in the conflict. However, the leadership in Kyiv and their Western supporters have refused to hold talks.
And what is not at all a pity for Putin is the people.
Irina Sherbakova, Russian human rights activist
Ukraine immediately contradicted this. She demands the withdrawal of all Russian troops, including those from the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed in 2014. There is no end in sight to the war, which the Russian leadership describes as a special military operation. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the situation on the front in the eastern Donbass region is “difficult and painful”. Above all, the situation on the front in Bakhmut, Kreminna and other areas in the Donbass requires a maximum of strength and concentration, Zelenskyy said in his evening video address. “The occupiers are using every means at their disposal – and they are considerable resources – to make any advance.”
Ukraine’s general staff said on Tuesday that Russian attacks on two settlements in the Luhansk region and six in the Donetsk region had been repelled in the past 24 hours. Power outages in Ukraine as a result of Russian air strikes on energy infrastructure are also continuing. According to Selenskyj, almost nine million people were recently without electricity.
The Russian human rights activist Irina Scherbakova does not expect the situation in Ukraine to improve anytime soon. “It doesn’t look like peace. I think even the other way around: we have to prepare for the fighting to get even tougher,” she said on Tuesday on RBB Inforadio. Russia will probably launch a new offensive later this year or in early 2023.
The cultural scientist therefore expects Moscow to draw its hope from the fact that there are even more potential soldiers for further mobilization. “And what’s not a pity for Putin at all is the people,” said Sherbakova. She is co-founder of the human rights organization “Memorial”, which is banned in Russia and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this year.
Sherbakova said that peace under the conditions set by Russia was unacceptable for Ukraine. The war had claimed too many victims for that. Moreover, as a result, Ukraine would lose its independence. Peace is only possible “if the Ukrainian conditions are accepted.” (Reuters/epd)
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