Despite the atrocities committed in the Ukrainian cities of Boucha and Kramatorsk, and despite an imminent offensive in the Donbass, Volodymyr Zelensky assures him this Saturday, kyiv is “always ready” to hold talks with Moscow. “Ukraine has always said that it is ready for negotiations and will seek any possibility to stop the war. At the same time, we are unfortunately seeing preparations for major, some say decisive, battles in the east,” the Ukrainian president said.
VIDEO. War in Ukraine: at least 50 dead in Kramatorsk after a rocket attack
“We are ready to fight and at the same time seek diplomatic ways to stop this war. At the same time, we are still considering a dialogue,” he continued during a press conference with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who was visiting kyiv and Boutcha, near the Ukrainian capital, which has become a symbol of the atrocities of the Russian invasion.
Moscow is preparing to “occupy part of our territory”
The last session of direct Russian-Ukrainian talks was held on March 29 in Istanbul, during which Ukraine detailed its main proposals for an agreement with Moscow, including its “neutrality” in exchange for an international agreement to ensure its safety. “In the East and in the South, we observe a concentration of weapons, equipment and troops which are preparing to occupy another part of our territory”, underlined Volodymyr Zelensky.
Asked about the scenarios for such an offensive, he said that they would depend on “several factors”: “on our strength, the speed of our partners to provide us with weapons, and the will of the Russian leader (Vladimir Putin) to go further.
This repositioning opens a new chapter in Russian military strategy. “Russia has realized that it does not have the means to carry out a total occupation. Four axes (kyiv, Donbass, Kharkiv and the South) were too many. They have gone from a desire for total overthrow to a goal of limited purpose. But we don’t know where they will stop”, admitted two days ago to the Parisian Édouard Jolly, researcher in theory of armed conflicts and philosophy of war at the Institute for Strategic Research of the Military School (Irsem) .