Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has declared himself ready to discuss everything with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin if he agrees to negotiate directly with him, including Crimea and Donbass, but with “security guarantees” in advance, and warning that Ukraine would be “destroyed” before surrendering.
Nearly a month after the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and while the bombardments continue on the major cities of the country, the Ukrainian president for the first time said he was open to “trying to address everything that upsets and displeases Russia”, in an interview with several media broadcast on the night of Monday to Tuesday.
“The issue of Crimea and Donbass is a very difficult story for everyone.” We need “security guarantees” and an end to hostilities, and “once this blockage is lifted, let’s talk”, said Mr. Zelensky about the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014 and the region of eastern Ukraine where pro-Russian separatists have proclaimed two “republics”, only recognized by Moscow.
The Head of State, who wants to speak directly to his Russian counterpart, also argued that the people should, by referendum, “decide on certain forms of compromise” concluded with Russia. While warning: “We must do everything so that Donbass and Crimea come back to us (…) A question of time? Yes. But stopping the war now, that’s the question”.
Mr Zelensky also said he did not want “history to make us heroes and a nation that does not exist”, and insisted that Ukraine would be “destroyed” before surrendering.
Several sessions of negotiations between kyiv and Moscow have taken place face-to-face and by videoconference since the outbreak of the war, without result for the time being.
– Curfew in kyiv –
On the ground, the bombardments continued at the beginning of the week on several cities such as kyiv, Kharkiv, Mariupol, Odessa or Mykolaiv.
In the capital, where a new curfew took effect from 8:00 p.m. Monday (6:00 p.m. GMT) until 7:00 a.m. Wednesday, “65 peaceful Kyiv residents, including four children, died” and around 300 people, including 16 children, were injured in “Russian military shelling,” said its mayor, Vitali Klitschko, on Monday.
Late Sunday evening, a powerful Russian strike, presumably caused by a missile, destroyed the huge Retroville shopping center, the most violent attack on the capital since the start of the war. According to Moscow, the “inoperative” shopping center served as an arms depot. AFP saw six corpses taken out of the rubble, men dressed in military effects, suggesting that soldiers were probably sleeping there.
The situation remains dramatic in Mariupol, a large port city in the south, mostly Russian-speaking, located between Crimea and the separatist territory of Donetsk and besieged, bombed for weeks by the Russians. The Ukrainian government has rejected an ultimatum issued by Moscow on a surrender of the city.
The humanitarian situation there is “extremely serious”, according to the UN, with “a critical and life-threatening shortage of food, water and medicine”. And for the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, “what is happening in Mariupol is a major war crime”.
On Monday, US President Joe Biden and the leaders of France Emmanuel Macron, Britain’s Boris Johnson, Germany’s Olaf Scholtz and Italy’s Mario Draghi spoke by videoconference, in particular, of the “critical humanitarian situation in Mariupol, and the urgency of obtaining access without obstruction of humanitarian aid”, indicated the French presidency.
President Zelensky accused Russia of “simply destroying” the city, where Russian tanks entered. “They reduce it to ashes, but we will survive them,” he assured Monday evening.
– Biden: Putin “back to the wall” –
In Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine, a demonstration by civilians against the occupation of Russian forces was dispersed on Monday by automatic weapons fire, stun grenades and tear gas, which injured at least one person, according to Ukrainian officials.
In total the Ukrainian army said Monday that the Russians had lost 15,000 soldiers, while Mr. Zelensky announced 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers killed on March 12 – figures impossible to verify. US intelligence sources quoted by the New York Times claim more than 7,000 Russians killed.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov admitted that “the situation is very difficult” in the face of “a numerically very superior enemy and the threat of a ground invasion by the army” of Belarus, an ally of Moscow.
The Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense of the European Union decided on Monday to double their financial support for the purchase of armaments sent to kyiv, after the exhaustion of a first envelope of 500 million euros.
Will chemical and biological weapons be used by the Russians? Moscow has suggested that Ukraine has them, which is “a clear sign that he (Vladimir Putin) plans to use these two types of weapons”, estimated Joe Biden Monday evening during a meeting in Washington with representatives of the business world, believing that his Russian counterpart had his “back against the wall”.
The weekend will be marked by intense diplomatic activity. Mr. Biden will participate Thursday in Brussels in an extraordinary NATO summit, a G7 meeting and an EU summit, before staying Friday and Saturday in Poland, the main country of arrival of Ukrainian refugees.
Nearly 3.5 million people – mostly women and children – have fled Ukraine since February 24, according to the UN count released on Monday.
In Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry estimated that Joe Biden had brought Russian-American relations “to the brink of rupture” by his “unworthy” statements targeting Vladimir Putin, whom he described as a “war criminal”. . The American ambassador was summoned on Monday.
The subject of a possible European embargo on Russian hydrocarbons was brought back to the table, with Volodymyr Zelensky’s call on Monday for the EU to cease all trade with Russia, particularly concerning “energy resources”. The Europeans, very dependent on Russian hydrocarbons, have so far ruled out sanctioning this sector.
“No sanctions package will be decided this week,” Borrell said. “But guidance will be given Thursday and Friday at the summit of heads of state and government and it will be followed by concrete decisions,” he said.