Peace talks with Russia remain “out of the question”, presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak said on Saturday, “only a Ukrainian victory will end the war in Europe”, he said, he accused Russia of not being ready to leave territory it occupied or take responsibility for the war that has been going on for almost a year.
Inside a senior Ukrainian was fired on Saturday, Ruslan Dziyova was fired from his position as deputy commander of the National Guard, so according to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s announcement published on the presidential website, no reasons were specified for Dziyova’s dismissal. Zelensky recently spoke about his efforts to clean the government of corruption.
In his night speech yesterday, Zelensky said that he had several meetings with representatives of the defense sector and law enforcement authorities to discuss “strengthening public institutions”. The meetings also focused on “protecting institutions from any external or internal attempts to reduce their effectiveness,” Zelensky said.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is trying to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, he told CNN on Friday during a visit to the United States that Ukraine has the right to defend itself “because the invasion was a mistake on Russia’s part” but Brazil will not give Ukraine ammunition. “I don’t want to go join the war. I want to end the war,” he said. He proposed establishing a “peace club” of countries that could mediate the end of the war and repeatedly rejected calls from Western countries to support Kiev with arms.
Meanwhile, the Wagner group, Putin’s private military force that led the attack on the city of Akhmat, announced that it had stopped recruiting prisoners from Russia’s prisons that helped give Moscow a manpower advantage in the region. The group’s founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said that it may take two years for Russia to capture all of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and up to three years if the Kremlin decides to take control of additional territories to the east of the country.