Ukraine calls for ceasefire and vows not to surrender territory to Russia under US peace deal
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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire from Russia.
Writing on Telegram, Mr Zelensky said that Ukraine has repeatedly said that it does not rule out any format of talks that can lead to a ceasefire.
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RTÉ News
41 minutes ago
- RTÉ News
Putin's counter-narratives and stalled talks
If you were to only listen to Russian President Vladimir Putin's account of the war in Ukraine (as many millions of Russians do), you might conclude that Russia somehow stumbled into the conflict unwittingly, almost as if it were forced to invade its neighbour. Russia's leader told reporters at this week's St Petersburg International Economic Forum that he had told former US President Joe Biden during one of their last phone conversations (clearly, just before Moscow began its full-scale invasion in February 2022), that "conflicts, especially hot conflicts, must be avoided, and that all issues should be resolved through peaceful means." It was a brazen-faced claim from the man who started the largest conventional war in Europe since World War II. Mr Putin, just like current US President Donald Trump, is running a narrative that the Biden administration was at fault for not trying to stop a war that, in truth, Russia was hell-bent on starting anyway. Since returning to the White House in January, Mr Trump has repeatedly said that the conflict is "Biden's war". Mr Trump has also repeatedly claimed that the war would not have started if he had been president. On this hypothetical point, Mr Putin, is now in agreement too. "Indeed, had Trump been the president, perhaps this conflict would not have happened. I fully acknowledge that possibility," said the Russian leader during the same press event on Thursday in St Petersburg. What Mr Putin really means is: the Biden administration opposed Russia's demands to subjugate Ukraine, whereas Mr Trump, had he been the US president in the months leading up to February 2022, would have been more likely to pressure Ukraine to give in to Russia's demands. For his part, Mr Trump blames another former US President, Barack Obama, also a Democrat, for not dealing with Russia a decade ago. At the G7 meeting in the Canadian Rockies earlier this week, he said the war in Ukraine would not have happened if Russia had still been a member of the club, or G8 as it was known. (Russia was kicked out of the G8 in 2014 after its illegal annexation of Crimea). Despite Mr Trump's claims about how he could have averted the war from starting had he been president, he has failed in his promise to end it quickly since returning to the White House in January. It was always an unrealistic pledge. To its credit, the US, aided by Turkey, managed to get both Ukraine and Russia to hold two sets of brief, but direct talks in Istanbul in May, albeit at a low diplomatic level. Getting Ukraine to the table was never an issue. As early as the second week of March, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had said his country was ready to sign up to a US proposal to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire. The barrier to any ceasefire deal has been Russia, which has repeatedly rejected the US and European-backed ceasefire proposal. Those two sets of direct talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations last month in Istanbul have delivered large-scale prisoner exchanges, humanitarian gestures that do just about enough to keep the US engaged in the process. But otherwise, the talks are at a standstill. Russia is talking about a third set of direct talks, but the Ukrainian side say they have heard nothing from Moscow. Yesterday, at the same conference in St Petersburg, Mr Putin said, as he has done previously, that he considers Russians and Ukrainians to be "one people". "In that sense the whole of Ukraine is ours," he said. That statement shows that Russia's position has not changed since it launched the war. It still disregards Ukraine's sovereignty, although Mr Putin also says that Russia is not seeking Ukraine's capitulation. According to Ukraine's first deputy foreign minister Serhii Kyslytsia, during the second meeting in Instanbul, the head of the Russian delegation, Vladimir Medinsky, described the war as "Russians killing Russians". Mr Medinsky, an ultranationalist historian, has previously questioned the existence of the Ukrainian and Mr Putin's decision to appoint him as the head of the Russian delegation is a clear signal that Moscow has no intention to negotiate. "The talks in Istanbul have demonstrated that Russia has no interest in pursuing peace and is pursuing its maximalist demands," Peter Dickinson, a Kyiv-based editor of the Atlantic Council's Ukraine Alert, told RTÉ News. Instead of pursuing peace, Russia, emboldened by a lack of pressure from the US to end the war, is intensifying its drone and missile assaults on Ukrainian cities. Last Tuesday morning's deadly Russian drone and missile assault on Kyiv – a nine-hour assault and the largest so far this year – killed 30 people and injured more than 170. Twenty-three of the victims, a death toll that included children, were residents of a 9-storey block of flats in the city's western suburb of Solomianskyi. It was struck by a Russian missile. "I think people in Kyiv are very alarmed about the rising number of attacks," said Mr Dickinson. "There's a feeling that people are sitting ducks". This week, Mr Putin also said that he was willing to meet with Mr Zelensky during a final phase of negotiations. However, he quickly followed that statement by questioning the legitimacy of Mr Zelensky's presidency – a long-running Kremlin propaganda narrative that Mr Trump briefly bought into back in March, wrongly labelling the Ukrainian president as "a dictator without elections". Russia argues that Ukraine must hold new presidential elections given that Mr Zelensky's term as president officially ended in May 2024. It was the stuff of more counter-narrative fantasy. Mr Zelensky is a democratically elected leader whereas Russia's elections are rigged like a piece of scripted theatre. While Mr Putin continues his counter-narratives and Russia continues its attacks, Ukraine is still pursuing its strategy of calling for a ceasefire first before there is any talk over territorial issues. Mr Zelensky had arrived in the Canadian Rockies for the G7 meeting on Tuesday - the same day that Russia launched its massive drone and missile on Kyiv - hoping to get some face time with Mr Trump. But his long journey had been in vain. Mr Trump had left early to deal with the escalating situation in the Middle East, according to the White House. And so Mr Zelensky ended up meeting his European partners (plus Canada's new PM Mark Carney), just as he could have done in Europe. Mr Trump's departure may have been a coincidence but, either way, it demonstrated just how low down Ukraine features on the US president's list of priorities. "As of now, no productive talks are possible," said Oleksandr Kraiev, a Ukrainian foreign policy expert at the Ukrainian Prism thinktank in Kyiv. The West, he argues, needs to considering targeting Russia's trading partners in Asia, particularly China, with "proper second-grade sanctions" in order to pressure Moscow to stop the war. "The idea from the Ukrainian side is to find a new format that could change the pressure on Russia," said Mr Kraeiv. That new diplomatic format would need Europe to play more of a role in pressuring Russia to seriously negotiate given the Trump administration's reluctance to introduce new sanctions on Moscow. But more than a month after the leaders of France, Germany, Poland and the UK travelled to Kyiv and gave Russia a 48-hour ultimatum to agree to a ceasefire (or face new sanctions and increased military aid to Kyiv), the steam seems to have run out of European efforts to up the pressure on Russia. Mr Putin had torpedoed that ultimatum by offering direct talks in Istanbul, which Mr Trump approved. 'The Coalition of the Willing', a British and French-led initiative to shore up support for a European peace monitoring force in a post-war scenario, has gone quiet too, perhaps waiting for the outcome of this week's NATO annual summit in The Hague. Crucially, it also lacked US support. "The question now is how do you get Russia to be interested in peace," said Mr Dickinson, who believes it's "futile" to expect the US to make the breakthrough. "Now it's up to Europe to step up and take action but there is still no political will".
Irish Independent
7 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Fury in Kyiv as Vladimir Putin tells economic forum ‘the whole of Ukraine is ours'
Russian leader says he wants President Zelensky to accept the 'reality on the ground' Russian president Vladimir Putin said yesterday that in his view the whole of Ukraine was 'ours' and cautioned that advancing Russian forces could take the Ukrainian city of Sumy as part of a bid to carve out a buffer zone along the border. Ukraine's foreign minister denounced the statements as evidence of Russian 'disdain' for US peace efforts and said Moscow was bent on seizing more territory and killing more Ukrainians. Register for free to read this story Register and create a profile to get access to our free stories. You'll also unlock more free stories each week.
The Irish Sun
8 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Vladimir Putin rages ‘all of Ukraine is ours' as he threatens to seize key city while Kyiv slams tyrant as ‘deranged'
TYRANT Vladimir Putin cemented his territorial ambitions by proclaiming "all of Ukraine" belonged to Russia and threatening to invade more land. Ukraine slammed Putin's comments as "deranged" and called for Kyiv's allies to slap "devastating sanctions" on Russia. Advertisement 10 Ukrainian soldiers of 43rd artillery brigade fire self-propelled howitzer towards Russian positions Credit: AP 10 An explosion of a drone lights up the sky over the city during a Russian drone strike Credit: Reuters 10 Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the main session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) Credit: Getty 10 Speaking at Russia 's flagship economic forum in Saint Petersburg, Putin reaffirmed his long-held claim that He declared: "In that sense, all of Ukraine is ours. "There is a saying: wherever a Russian soldier sets foot, that is ours," he added. The narrative is central to Putin's rhetoric, which he has used to justify his Advertisement more on Putin However, he said Russia is ready to recognise Ukraine's sovereignty. But he reiterated his demand that Kyiv accept the realities of Nato . Putin said: "We aren't seeking Ukraine's surrender, we want them to recognise the realities on the ground," adding that Moscow has repeatedly warned Kyiv to make a deal. Asked about Moscow's goals in Ukraine, Putin threatened to take Sumy - a key Ukrainian city - as part of the creation of a "buffer zone". Advertisement Most read in The US Sun Latest He repeated that Moscow was "advancing on all fronts" and that his troops had penetrated up to seven miles into the Sumy region. Putin said: "We have to create a security zone along the border. Putin has lost a MILLION men - Ukraine has killed so many it is running out of ammo "We have no objective to take Sumy, but in principle I do not rule it out... They pose a constant threat to us, constantly shelling the border areas." Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga described Putin's comments as "deranged" and called for Kyiv's allies to slap "devastating sanctions" on Russia. Advertisement "The only way to force Russia into peace is to deprive it of its sense of impunity," he wrote in a post on X. Putin's widening territorial ambitions are likely to roil Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has accused Moscow of not wanting to end the fighting. The two sides held rounds of direct talks in Istanbul in May and in June, but Kyiv accused Moscow of sending "dummy" negotiators with no real power to enact a peace deal. Putin has declined to take part in the peace talks in person and on Thursday said he would only meet Zelensky during a "final phase" of negotiations on ending the three-year conflict. Advertisement He has also insisted that Ukraine give up territory it already controls for peace. Kyiv says it cannot and will not accept Russian occupation of any part of its land. 10 Firefighters try to extinguish after a Russian drone attack in Kharkiv Credit: Getty 10 Ukrainian service members firing an anti-tank guided missile weapon system Credit: Reuters Advertisement 10 Artillerymen of the 15th Operative Purpose Brigade Kara-Dag firing towards Russia Credit: Reuters It comes as Putin's battlefield Ukraine's fierce resistance forced Russia to pay a mighty toll for every inch of land it has taken, and The Advertisement According to the Ukrainian General Staff, one million Russian military troops have been put out of action since February 24, 2022, with 628,000 of those casualties occurring in the last six months. Burning through a million troops has won Putin just 20 per cent of Ukraine's total territory - mainly in southern and eastern areas - which is a Despite the Advertisement Even with the death toll climbing higher by the day Putin appears to be doubling down. The bloody milestone comes as Putin calls for a major upgrade to Russia's ground forces, Ukrainian outlet Pravda reports. 10 The Kremlin tyrant declared them the 'dominant force' in modern warfare and demanded faster development of 'advanced weapons systems' with 'the highest tactical and technical specifications.' Advertisement In a meeting on the state armaments programme, Putin also directed resources toward strengthening Russia's navy, further signalling his long-term military ambitions. It all comes as Russia is reportedly building up a 50,000-strong force alongside the border of Kharkiv amid fears of a fresh summer offensive to attack the city. With the The Ukrainian military in April reported that the Kremlin was amassing troops to prepare for a fresh assault on Kharkiv - Ukraine's second largest city. Advertisement Military analysts believe he is trying to press home his advantage and capture more Ukrainian land. They warn that Putin only has a "four-month window" to get a breakthrough in Ukraine this year. And this could be the beginning of Russia's summer offensive targeting the border city of Kharkiv - the "fortress" city of Ukraine which put up the maximum resistance at the start of the invasion. 10 Fire burns in the debris of a private house that was destroyed in a Russian rocket strike Credit: Reuters Advertisement 10 Private houses are seen ruined after a Russian drones attack in Kyiv region Credit: Reuters
