Plans under way for peace talks between Putin, Zelensky
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Perth Now
2 hours ago
- Perth Now
Ukraine talks without Russia are a 'road to nowhere'
Russia has warned the West that attempts to resolve security issues for Ukraine;s future without Moscow's participation are a "road to nowhere." Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov particularly criticised the role of European leaders who met US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the White House on Monday to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine that could help end the three-and-a-half-year-old war. "We cannot agree with the fact that now it is proposed to resolve questions of security, collective security, without the Russian Federation. This will not work," Lavrov told a joint press conference after meeting Jordan's foreign minister. US and European military planners have begun exploring post-conflict security guarantees for Ukraine. Lavrov said such discussions without Russia were pointless. "I am sure that in the West and above all in the United States they understand perfectly well that seriously discussing security issues without the Russian Federation is a utopia, it's a road to nowhere." NATO military leaders holding a video conference on Wednesday had a "great, candid discussion" on the results of recent talks on Ukraine, the chair of the alliance's military committee said. "Priority continues to be a just, credible and durable peace," Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone wrote in a post on X. Meanwhile after an object likely to be a Russian drone crashed in a cornfield in eastern Poland overnight, Poland accused Russia of provoking NATO countries just as efforts to find an end to the war were intensifying. "Once again, we are dealing with a provocation by the Russian Federation, with a Russian drone. We are dealing in a crucial moment, when discussions about peace (in Ukraine) are under way," Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said. Moscow this week also restated its rejection of "any scenarios involving the deployment of NATO troops in Ukraine." Lavrov accused the European leaders who met Trump and Zelenskiy of carrying out "a fairly aggressive escalation of the situation, rather clumsy and, in general, unethical attempts to change the position of the Trump administration and the president of the United States personally ... We did not hear any constructive ideas from the Europeans there." Trump said on Monday the United States would help guarantee Ukraine's security in any deal to end Russia's war there. He subsequently said he had ruled out putting US troops in Ukraine, but the US might provide air support as part of a deal to end the hostilities. Zelenskiy's chief of staff, speaking after a meeting of national security advisers from Western countries and NATO, said work was proceeding on the military component of the guarantees. "Our teams, above all the military, have already begun active work on the military component of security guarantees," chief of staff Andriy Yermak wrote on social media. Yermak said Ukraine was also working on a plan with its allies on how to proceed "in case the Russian side continues to prolong the war and disrupt agreements on bilateral and trilateral formats of leaders' meetings." Lavrov said Russia was in favour of "truly reliable" guarantees for Ukraine and suggested these could be modelled on a draft accord that was discussed between the warring parties in Istanbul in 2022, in the early weeks of the war. Under the draft discussed then, Ukraine would have received security guarantees from a group of countries including the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - China, Russia, the United States, Britain, and France. At the time, Kyiv rejected that proposal on the grounds that Moscow would have held effective veto power over any military response to come to its aid.
ABC News
6 hours ago
- ABC News
The territories Putin wants and what it will mean for Ukraine
A decade ago, Donetsk was the metropolis of Ukraine's east By 2013, one in 10 Ukrainians called it home, part of a pre-war population of 4.43 million. It was an agricultural and industrial heartland, rich in produce and with much of the country's coal, steel and iron. It hosted prestigious music festivals, hockey championships and other international sports tournaments, as well as concerts by Beyoncé and Rihanna. One of Ukraine's most popular football clubs, FC Shakhtar Donetsk, drew crowds of thousands. But Donetsk and neighbouring Luhansk — collectively known as the Donbas — have long been sought after by Russian President Vladimir Putin. It is where the majority of the heavy fighting has taken place since February 2022, reducing homes, businesses, and venues to rubble, and forcing millions to flee. Now the Russian president is reportedly demanding Kyiv hand over the remaining quarter of the more than 26,000 square kilometre region in order to secure peace in Ukraine. Russia has been trying to seize the entire Donbas region for about a decade. Armed conflict in eastern Ukraine erupted in early 2014 following Russia's annexation of Crimea. That same year, Russian-backed separatists broke away from the Ukrainian government, declaring both Donetsk and Luhansk as independent "people's republics". Days before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Mr Putin made a national address to recognise their independence from Ukraine. The US, UK and European Union called the move a "breach of international law". Russia expert Matthew Sussex, from the Australian National University's Centre for European Studies, said Mr Putin had his sights set on conquering Donbas "since the start of the conflict". "But the slow progress of his military means that he can't occupy, or doesn't occupy, those territories," he told the ABC. "So what he's demanding now is that the Ukrainians cede Donetsk Oblast — which is a huge amount of territory — and would force them to give up some vital fortified cities and defence lines which the Russians have been trying for three-and-a-half years to crack, and they can't." Ukraine has been developing a "fortress belt" throughout Donetsk since the initial 2014 conflict — a 50-kilometre stretch spanning several cities. This main defence line has halted Russian forces from advancing further west into Ukraine. In March 2022, the initial conflict saw rapid Russian advances. Within five weeks of the invasion, the Kremlin's forces had taken control of about 120,000 square kilometres of Ukraine and were advancing on Kyiv. But by September, Russia's hold on Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv in the north-east, was waning, and Moscow called back their troops in retreat. By the end of spring, Ukraine had recaptured about 50,000 square kilometres of territory back from Russia. Russia now controls about 20 per cent of Ukraine's east. Along with Crimea, Russian forces control approximately 88 per cent of the Donbas region, including all of Luhansk and 75 per cent of Donetsk. Russia also controls large parts of two other regions of south-eastern Ukraine close to the Russian border, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. After a meeting with Mr Putin in Alaska last week, US President Donald Trump said Ukraine may need to "swap" territory with Russia in order to end the war. In exchange for the entire Donbas region and Crimea, Russia would be prepared to fix the front lines as they stand in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Mr Putin "illegally annexed" Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in September 2022, saying the four regions would be folded into Russia. In a 37-minute speech announcing the annexation, Mr Putin made it clear he had no intention of handing over any of the regions. "I want the Kyiv authorities and their real masters in the West to hear me so that they remember this," he said. "People living in Luhansk and Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are becoming our citizens. Forever." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also repeatedly rejected calls to cede territory. "We will not leave Donbas," Mr Zelenskyy said. "We cannot do this. Handing it over would mean shifting the front line of war deep into Ukraine, as well as giving up the decades' worth of defence build-up which has made it so difficult to capture. Any concession of Ukrainian territory would also have to be approved by a referendum. Around 78 per cent of Ukrainians are opposed to giving up territory to Russia, according to a poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute (KIIS) of Sociology in June. For those in Donetsk and Luhansk, where the population is majority Russian-speaking and the government is anti-Ukraine, there is similar opposition to the invasion. A KIIS poll of those living in Russian-occupied territory found 82 per cent of citizens felt negative towards Russia. After talks with the Russian president, Mr Trump hosted Mr Zelenskyy and a group of European leaders in Washington for multilateral talks. Mr Zelenskyy said he had a long conversation with Mr Trump about land, but territorial issues would be decided between Ukraine and Russia. The Russian and Ukrainian presidents are tipped to meet within two weeks, according to world leaders. As negotiations go on, Russia has continued to launch drone attacks across Ukraine in an attempt to gain ground. Russia's main objective, according to Washington-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War, is to capture the remainder of Luhansk and Donetsk. Russian forces have also attempted to push westward into Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk. Professor Sussex said that Russia had recently launched a "a massive push" to grab more territory. "But the Ukrainians — to their credit — have managed to cut that off and are now pushing the Russians back again," he said. "So it is still ultimately — even though there is very, very fierce fighting — in terms of where the battle lines start and stop, pretty much a stalemate." Some world leaders have this week suggested Mr Putin would not have entered peace talks if he thought he was capable of conquering eastern Ukraine by force. French President Emmanuel Macron said he believed the Russian president was entering negotiations only to extract more territory from Ukraine. "I am not convinced that President Putin also wants peace," Mr Macron said.
Perth Now
13 hours ago
- Perth Now
NATO holds meeting on security guarantees for Ukraine
NATO defence chiefs are due to hold a virtual meeting, a senior alliance official says, as countries pushing for an end to Russia's war on Ukraine devise possible future security guarantees for Kyiv that could help forge a peace agreement. Italian Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chair of NATO's Military Committee, said that 32 defence chiefs from across the alliance would hold a video conference as a US-led diplomatic push seeks to end the fighting. US General Alexus Grynkewich, NATO's supreme allied commander Europe, would take part in the talks, Dragone said on social platform X. US President Donald Trump met last Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska and on Monday hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and prominent European leaders at the White House. Neither meeting delivered concrete progress. Trump is trying to steer Putin and Zelenskiy towards a settlement more than three years after Russia invaded its neighbour, but there are major obstacles. They include Ukraine's demands for Western-backed military assurances to ensure Russia will not mount another invasion in coming years. "We need strong security guarantees to ensure a truly secure and lasting peace," Zelenskiy said in a Telegram post on Wednesday after Russian missile and drone strikes hit six regions of Ukraine overnight. Kyiv's European allies are looking to set up a force that could backstop any peace agreement, and a coalition of 30 countries, including European nations, Japan and Australia, have signed up to support the initiative. Military chiefs are figuring out how that security force might work. The role that the US might play in is unclear. Trump on Tuesday ruled out sending US troops to help defend Ukraine against Russia. Russia has repeatedly said that it would not accept NATO troops in Ukraine. Attacks on civilian areas in Sumy and Odesa overnight into Wednesday injured 15 people, including a family with three small children, Ukrainian authorities said. Russian strikes also targeted ports and fuel and energy infrastructure, officials said. Zelenskiy said the strikes "only confirm the need for pressure on Moscow, the need to introduce new sanctions and tariffs until diplomacy works to its full potential". Trump said on Monday he had begun arrangements for a face-to-face meeting between Putin and Zelenskiy, although the Kremlin has not publicly confirmed such a possibility and no venue was suggested. French President Emmanuel Macron has said the summit could happen in Europe and proposed the Swiss city of Geneva. Putin's ability to travel abroad is limited, however, because he is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague on a warrant dating back to March 2023 for alleged involvement in the abduction of Ukrainian children. More than 100 countries are ICC signatories and have a legal obligation to arrest the Russian leader on their soil. Switzerland intends to ask the ICC to exempt it from sanctions in order to allow Putin in for a summit, according to a senior official in The Hague with direct knowledge of the request. The official was not authorised to speak about the proceedings and spoke on condition of anonymity.
