Time.news – The announced Russian withdrawal from the areas of Kiev and Chernihiv would not have stopped the bombing of the two citiesaccording to the Ukrainian authorities, and the reorganization of the forces of Moscow appears oriented to strike the final blow in the Donbass and take over all areas of Donetsk and Lugansk that were under Ukrainian control.
On the diplomatic front, the Russian Foreign Minister, Serghei Lavrov, expressed a positive balance of the negotiations in Turkey, defining a “huge progress” Kiev’s yes to neutrality and his finding that Donbass and Crimea would now be “closed issues” .
Russian President Vladimir Putin had two telephone conversations with the heads of government of Germany and Italy, Olaf Scholz and Mario Draghi.
In addition to the progress of the negotiations with Kiev, the question of gas supplies was also at the center of the two calls, which the Kremlin now wants to be paid for in rubles.
The solution proposed by Putin, explained a spokesman for Scholz, is to make payments in euros to Gazprombank, which will then convert them.