Putin to Zelensky: “We are talking about the demilitarisation and neutral status of Ukraine, so that a threat to the Russian Federation will never emanate from its territory.”
As Macron thinks “the worst is yet to come” in Ukraine after talking with Putin on Thursday
The embattled President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, on Thursday, called for direct negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Zelensky called on Putin to sit down with him so that they can find a solution to the war raging between their two countries, insisting that his country poses no security threat to Russia.
The call came a week after the beginning of hostilities that have reduced much of Ukraine to a pile of rubbles.
“Good Lord, what do you want? Leave our land. If you don’t want to leave now, sit down with me at the negotiating table. But not from 30 meters away, like with [French President Emmanuel] Macron and [German Chancellor Olaf] Scholz,” Zelensky said, according to a translation from journalist Max Seddon, the Financial Times’ Moscow bureau chief.
The “30 meters” line appears to be a reference to the lengthy table Putin uses for meetings with foreign leaders and his own advisers.
“Sit down with me and talk. What are you afraid of? We’re no threat to anyone,” Zelensky added.
His comments came one week after Putin ordered a military invasion of Ukraine. Russia has since stepped up its assault on key cities after an attempt by its forces to encircle the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, appeared to stall.
But even as he calls for dialogue, Zelensky on Thursday issued a dire appeal for help as Russia’s attacks across the country intensified.
“The end of the world has arrived,” Zelensky said during a televised news conference in Kyiv.
He appealed to Western leaders who have resisted calls to set up a no-fly zone over Ukraine to help.
“If you do not have the power to close the skies, then give me planes,” Zelensky said.
But Zelensky’s call on Putin seem not to have made any impact as the Russian leader told his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, on Thursday that the war would be fought to a logical conclusion.
Based on their discussion, Macron thinks “the worst is yet to come” in Ukraine according to multiple reports.
A senior French official said Macron’s warning came after the two leaders spoke for 90 minutes, which did not yield any diplomatic progress, The Washington Post reported.
The official said Putin was determined to carry out the ongoing war in Ukraine until “the end,” the paper reported.
Putin also told Macron that Russia’s goals in Ukraine would be “fulfilled” and that the war was going “according to plan,” Reuters reported, citing a statement issued by the Kremlin.
The statement read: “It was confirmed that, first of all, we are talking about the demilitarisation and neutral status of Ukraine, so that a threat to the Russian Federation will never emanate from its territory.”
Russia on Wednesday captured its first major city, Kherson, after nearly a week of failure to break Ukrainian resistance.
Western officials have warned that Russia’s lack of anticipated progress in Ukraine so far may lead to Putin’s decision to stage a more aggressive approach.
In the last few days, Russian forces have ramped up their attacks on Ukraine’s capital city, Kyiv, and the second-largest city, Kharkiv, as troops reportedly fired missiles at civilian areas.
As a result, the US State Department has accused Russia of “widespread” human rights abuses in Ukraine, while top advocacy groups warn that ongoing bombings and attacks against Ukrainian citizens could be considered war crimes.
The International Criminal Court on Wednesday announced that it is launching an investigation into potential war crimes in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the second round of talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations on Thursday ended without a ceasefire agreement, but the two sides agreed to set up humanitarian and evacuation corridors, according to a top Ukrainian official.
Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said the two sides will together provide humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians, deliver food, and deliver medicine to areas with heavy fighting across the country.
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“The second round of negotiations is over,” Podolyak wrote on Twitter. “Unfortunately, the results Ukraine needs are not yet achieved. There is a solution only for the organization of humanitarian corridors.”
Previously, the Ukrainian delegation said they were seeking an immediate ceasefire, a temporary peace agreement, and the humanitarian or evacuation corridors for civilians. The first round of talks held in Belarus on Monday resulted in no progress.
The announcement comes as Putin said his country’s military has offered safe corridors to civilians to allow them to leave. During a call with members of his Security Council, Putin alleged without evidence or details that Ukrainian nationalist groups are preventing civilians from leaving areas.
Putin again said the Russian military is fighting “neo-Nazis,” while asserting that some Ukrainians were “fooled by nationalist propaganda.”
During a news conference on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the prospect of another round of talks between the two sides lacks promise. But he said that the two still need to negotiate because “any words are more important than shots.”
Hundreds of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers, as well as civilians, have died since Russia invaded the country starting in the early morning hours of February 24. The move prompted widespread condemnation and a number of Western countries hit Russia’s financial sector with significant sanctions, with likely more on the way.
The United Nations reported more than 1 million refugees have fled the country in the past week, adding that the humanitarian crisis on the ground appears to be growing worse.
Washington has repeatedly warned that it is prepared to take further measures to hold Moscow to account over its invasion of Ukraine.
With its main assault force halted on a highway north of Kyiv, the capital, Russia has changed its strategy and has opted to bombard cities such as Kharkiv and others, according to the U.S. Department of Defense officials and independent military analysts.
The EU on Monday imposed sanctions on 26 prominent people over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including oligarchs and businesspeople active in the oil, banking, and finance sectors.
Several people included on the EU’s list on Monday have not yet been designated by the United States, including Nikolay Tokarev, the chief executive of energy giant Transneft, Dmitry Chernyshenko, Russia’s deputy prime minister, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
The United States and its allies last week announced they would launch a task force to identify and freeze the assets of sanctioned Russian companies and oligarchs.