Zelensky says Ukraine must face facts and negotiate with Putin

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said today that Ukraine must face the facts and establish a dialogue with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Zelensky reported that he had repeatedly tried to arrange a meeting with the Russian President to put an end to the war, but the Putin government did not show that it was ready to start serious peace talks.

“There are things to talk about with the Russian leader. I’m not saying that… our people are worried. [que eu decida] Talk to them, but we have to face the reality of what we’re going through,” Zelensky said in a video speech to Indonesia today, according to Reuters.

“What do we want from this meeting? … We want to move on with our lives … We want to return to the life of a sovereign state in our own land,” Zelensky concluded.

The last face-to-face meeting between the delegations of the two countries took place at the end of March. Today, the Russian government said Ukraine’s demands lacked clarity. “This does not allow us to fully understand what the Ukrainian side wants,” Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Said.

Next week, Zelesnky will attend a summit of European leaders to address Ukraine’s most pressing needs and the food and energy crisis stemming from the conflict.

Today, the war has entered its 93rd day as Ukraine pays attention to the attacks in the region. Luganskin the east of the country, mainly in the city Sievierodonetsk, the “heavy struggle” continues in the suburbs. “The regional center is being destroyed by artillery and planes,” Ukraine’s emergency service said in a statement today.

Second Sergeant bagpipesdistrict governor Lugansk, Sievierodonetsk It is attacked from “several directions at once”. 4 people lost their lives in the oldest part of the city. bagpipes today.

In the opinion of the British, the Russians are “pressing” on the territory. Sievierodonetskhowever, he points out that Ukraine “holds control of several advocacy sectors, and that Russia refuses full control. Donbass“, quoting the area where the separatists are located pro-Russian in eastern Ukraine.

Sivieronetsk Already more than 1500 dead since the beginning of the Russian occupation. According to the city’s mayor, Alexander Stryuk, 90% of buildings were damaged by bombing and 60% of the city’s residential heritage was completely destroyed. 13 thousand civilians remain Sievierodonetska municipality with a population of about 100,000 before the war started.

old tanks

The military administration of the Zaporizhzhia region in eastern Ukraine said that the Russian army was “reinforced by a battalion of tanks” T-62. The T-62 is a tank produced between the 1960s and 1970s during the Soviet Union era. Britain’s Ministry of Defense intelligence said today that “in recent days Russia has probably transferred 50-year-old tanks that are in storage”.

For the British, allies of the Ukrainians, “T-62s will almost certainly be particularly vulnerable to anti-tank guns”. “His presence on the battlefield underlines the shortage of modern, combat-ready equipment in Russia.”

Military equipment would come from the Crimean peninsula, Ukrainian territory annexed by the Russians in 2014. “Russia is transferring its forces,” said the military administration of Zaporizhzhia. “Not only ground troops, but also air and naval components.”

If Ukraine highlighted the arrival of obsolete equipment for the war, the Russian Ministry of Defense today showed images of Malka artillery “designed to solve special tasks, such as suppression and elimination of specially protected command posts, artillery, mortars, armored vehicles, rear areas, enemy manpower” “. The statement comes two days after Ukraine showed images of new weapons sent by allied nations that are starting to be used in warfare.

movements

In its report released today, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense highlighted the importance of “strengthening protection” on the country’s border with Russia’s ally, Belarus. According to the Ukrainians, the threat of missile strikes from the territory of Belarus remains.

On the outskirts of Slobozhansky, located in the Dnipropetrovsk region of eastern Ukraine, the country’s Defense “recruits personnel for the replenishment of enemy, motorized infantry, tank and artillery units.” “It deals fire damage and remotely mines the area on possible deployment paths for our troop units.”

The government of the Dnipropetrovsk region today confirmed the new attacks on the region with “serious destruction”.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said in a report released today that it shot down a MiG-29 fighter jet of the Ukrainian Air Force in the southern Odessa region of the country. The Russians also announced that they had launched missile attacks in the eastern Donetsk region, which separatists said had taken control of the city of Lyman.

Governor of the Donetsk region of Ukraine, pavilion Kirlenkosaid Lyman It was “mainly controlled by Russian troops”, but also reported that the Ukrainian army had taken up new fortified positions in the area.

The conquest of Lyman, an important railway center in Ukraine, would allow Russian troops to overcome the final hurdle to advance into Slaviansk and Kramatorsk in a maneuver to encircle Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk.

launch system

Ukraine today strengthened its call on the United States to receive equipment MLRS, short for multiple rocket launch system. According to Andriy Yermak, the chief of staff of the Ukrainian presidency, this equipment will “help stop the Russian invasion and gain a tangible advantage in Russia. [de combate]”.

“We need them for yesterday, we also need the air defense systems, tanks and other weapons we want to stop the Russian offensive and liberate the temporarily occupied areas,” said Yermak.

Yesterday, the US government did not confirm whether it would supply the equipment, but agreed with Ukraine that the “war in Donbass” was “largely dependent on long-range fires.”

Yermak also said that “the threat of World War III exists”. But this can be avoided if we defeat Russia militarily on our own soil, increasing the pressure on the aggressor’s economy,” he said. He said that it is necessary to “make a quick decision so as not to waste time”, commenting that Ukraine pays “with people’s lives and destroyed cities”.

“total war”

For Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, “The West has declared total war on us, declared it to the entire Russian world, now no one is hiding it”.

According to the Russian news agency Tass, Lavrov’s statement was made at the ministry’s board meeting today.

In the Minister’s assessment, “The USA and its satellites double, triple, quadruple their efforts to take our country under control, using the widest range of means, from unilateral economic sanctions to completely false propaganda in the global media.”

(with Reuters, AFP and Ansa)