Vladimir Putin still shows no sign of willingness to stop the bloodbath in Ukraine. During a dialogue with German Foreign Minister Olaf Scholz, he took credit for a possible ceasefire agreement with the neighbouring country and strongly criticized Kiev's positions: “He seeks by all means to delay the negotiation process by putting forward proposals that are not realistic,” he said.
The statements cool the expectations that had accelerated this week, when encouraging signs had come from the Kremlin itself about progress in the negotiations, also paid by Volodymir Zelensky. The Ukrainian president had said that his country would admit the impossibility of joining NATO, although that required a special regime with countries that would guarantee its security and independence from the dictates of Moscow.
But now the Kremlin has once again tightened its speech and summed up the conversation between its boss and the German chancellor in a statement in which it holds Kiev responsible for the delay in the agreement. Putin's strategy seems to be to delay a truce, prompting specialists to speculate that he needs time to renew the invading forces and then relaunch his offensive, which has been stalled for days by the impossibility of defeating Ukrainian resistance in the country's main cities.
In this context, it has intensified the bombardments that increasingly punish civilians with increasing ferocity. On Friday, the mayor of Kiev reported the death of at least four children in an attack that damaged six homes, a school and a nursery, while on Thursday more than 75 victims had been reported in Chernihiv, Merefa and the country's capital.
Dialogues with Scholz and Macron
German diplomacy explained that the conversation between Scholz and Putin lasted almost an hour and in it the two addressed “the ongoing war in Ukraine and the efforts to end it.”
The chancellor's spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, said that the head of the Berlin government called for “an improvement in the humanitarian situation” and for progress “in the search for a diplomatic solution to the conflict.”
Dmitri Peskov, spokesman for the Russian presidency, told the press that the interview between Putin and the German chancellor was “tough.” He also added that the Russian president will speak with the French head of state this Friday afternoon.
The spokesman considered it premature to talk about the agreement that the two countries could reach: “I can say that the Russian delegation is showing a willingness to work much faster than is being done at the moment (...) Unfortunately, the Ukrainian delegation is not ready to speed up the negotiations,” he explained.
Russia wishes to negotiate with Ukraine a status of neutrality and demilitarization.
The Ukrainian authorities, not to mention this neutrality but assuming that they will not be able to join NATO, demanded that countries that guarantee their security be elected that will come to its defense militarily in the event of aggression.
Ukraine also demands the withdrawal of Russian forces and respect for their territorial integrity. Russia has already recognized the independence of two separatist regions in eastern Ukraine and Crimea was annexed eight years ago.
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