Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has issued an ultimatum for Ukraine saying Kyiv should meet Moscow’s calls for or its military will.
A day after President Vladimir Putin stated he was open to negotiations over Ukraine, Lavrov lashed out at Kyiv and claimed that the West sought to destroy his nation.
Kyiv and its Western allies have dismissed Putin’s provide to speak, together with his forces battering Ukrainian cities with missiles and rockets and Moscow persevering with to demand that Kyiv acknowledge its conquest of a fifth of the nation.
The Ukrainian capital says it can battle till Russia withdraws.
“Our proposals for the demilitarization and denazification of the territories controlled by the regime, the elimination of threats to Russia’s security emanating from there, including our new lands, are well known to the enemy,” state news company TASS quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying late Monday.
“The point is simple: Fulfil them for your own good. Otherwise, the issue will be decided by the Russian army.”
Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, calling it a “special operation” to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine, which he stated was a menace to Russia.
Kyiv and the West say Putin’s invasion was merely an imperialist land seize. The United States and its allies have imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia for its invasion and despatched billions of {dollars} in help to the Ukrainian authorities.
Just final week, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was visiting Washington, the United States introduced one other $1.85 billion in navy help for Ukraine, together with a switch of the Patriot Air Defense System, angering Moscow.
“It is no secret to anyone that the strategic goal of the United States and its NATO allies is to defeat Russia on the battlefield as a mechanism for significantly weakening or even destroying our country,” Lavrov additional informed TASS.
He reiterated that Russia and the United States can’t keep regular connection, blaming the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden.
While Moscow had deliberate a swift operation to take over its neighbor, the conflict is now in its eleventh month, marked by many embarrassing Russian battlefield setbacks.
In the newest assault to reveal gaps in Russia’s air defenses, a drone believed to be Ukrainian penetrated a whole lot of kilometeres by way of Russian airspace on Monday, inflicting a lethal explosion on the foremost base for its strategic bombers.
Fierce preventing
Russian forces have been engaged for months in fierce preventing within the east and south of Ukraine, to defend the lands Moscow proclaimed it annexed in September and which make up the broader Ukrainian industrial Donbass area.
Over the previous 24 hours, Ukrainian forces have repelled Russian assaults within the areas of two settlements within the Luhansk area and 6 within the Donetsk area, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces stated Tuesday.
In his nightly video message on Monday, Zelenskyy known as the scenario alongside the frontline in Donbass “difficult and painful.”
Oleh Zhdanov, a navy analyst based mostly in Kyiv, stated heavy preventing was occurring round elevated areas close to Kreminna within the Luhansk area.
He additionally stated that preventing has picked up alongside the Bakhmut and Avdiivka, a line of contact additional south within the Donetsk area, after a quick easing in earlier days.
“The arc of fire in Donetsk region continues to burn,” Zhdanov stated in a social media video put up.
Zelenskyy stated on account of assaults on Ukraine’s vitality infrastructure practically 9 million folks had been with out energy. That determine quantities to a few quarter of Ukraine’s inhabitants.
Sergey Kovalenko, head of YASNO, which provides electrical energy to Kyiv, stated late Monday that whereas the ability scenario has been enhancing within the metropolis, blackouts will proceed.
“While repairs are underway, emergency shutdowns will continue,” Kovalenko stated on his Facebook web page.
Russian airspace
Moscow on Monday stated it had shot down a drone believed to be Ukrainian, inflicting it to crash on the Engels air base, the place three service members had been killed. Ukraine didn’t remark, below its ordinary coverage on incidents inside Russia.
A suspected drone struck the identical base on Dec. 5.
The base, the primary airfield for the bombers that Kyiv says Moscow has used to assault Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, is a whole lot of miles from the Ukrainian frontier. The identical planes are additionally designed to launch nuclear-capable missiles as a part of Russia’s long-term strategic deterrent.
The Russian Defense Ministry stated in a press release no planes had been broken, however Russian and Ukrainian social media accounts stated a number of had been destroyed. Reuters was not capable of independently confirm the reviews.
Putin hosted leaders of different former Soviet states in St. Petersburg on Monday for a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States group, which Ukraine has lengthy since give up.
The invasion of Ukraine has been a check of Russia’s longstanding authority amongst different ex-Soviet states.
In televised remarks, Putin made no direct reference to the conflict, whereas saying threats to the safety and stability of the Eurasian area had been growing.
“Unfortunately challenges and threats in this area, especially from the outside, are only growing each year,” he stated. “We also have to acknowledge unfortunately that disagreements also arise between member states of the commonwealth.”
