Kyiv:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday mentioned it will be “suicidal” for Europe to supply the Kremlin concessions to halt its invasion of Ukraine, after Moscow demanded the West enter direct talks on ending the conflict.
Kyiv is scrambling to up the strain on its allies for extra help in its battle in opposition to Moscow following the victory of Donald Trump on this week’s US presidential election.
Trump has boasted he may finish the battle inside hours and repeatedly criticised American help to Kyiv.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded Ukraine cede swathes extra territory in its east and south as a precondition to peace talks, whereas Kyiv has repeatedly dominated out ceding any land to Moscow in alternate for peace.
Ukraine and lots of within the West worry any settlement that rewards Putin would solely embolden the Kremlin chief and result in extra aggression.
Chatting with European leaders at a summit in Hungary, Zelensky blasted those that have been pressuring him to present in to a few of Putin’s hardline calls for.
“There was a lot speak about the necessity to yield to Putin, to again down, to make some concessions,” Zelensky mentioned, in keeping with a duplicate of the deal with offered to AFP by the Ukrainian presidency.
“It is unacceptable for Ukraine and suicidal for all Europe,” he added.
He additionally blasted some European leaders, with out specifying who, of “strongly” pushing Ukraine to compromise.
“We’d like adequate weapons, not help in talks. Hugs with Putin will not assist. A few of you could have been hugging him for 20 years, and issues are solely getting worse,” Zelensky mentioned.
‘Alternative’
Russia demanded earlier on Thursday that Kyiv’s allies enter into negotiations with Moscow in the event that they need to halt the brutish assaults on Ukrainians.
The pinnacle of Russia’s Safety Council Sergei Shoigu mentioned the West confronted a alternative between opening direct talks with Moscow or the persevering with “destruction” of Ukraine’s inhabitants.
“Now, when the scenario within the theatre of fight just isn’t in Kyiv’s favour, the West is confronted with a alternative,” Shoigu mentioned at a gathering with defence officers of different former Soviet states.
“To proceed financing (Kyiv) and the destruction of the Ukrainian inhabitants or recognise the present realities and begin negotiating,” the previous defence minister mentioned.
They have been among the many first feedback from a Russian official since Trump was confirmed to have been elected president of the US.
Zelensky has beforehand mentioned that with out US help, Ukraine would lose the conflict.
His outmanned and outgunned military is already on the backfoot within the japanese Donbas area, the place Russian forces have been slowly advancing for months.
Moscow on Thursday mentioned its forces had wrested management of Kreminna Balka, a village that had a pre-war inhabitants of fewer than 50 individuals within the industrial Donetsk area the place Ukrainian defences have been pushed again time and again.
Ukraine in the meantime confronted one other evening of aerial bombardments throughout the nation, together with on the capital Kyiv, forward of what could possibly be the nation’s hardest winter but.
In a single day assaults
Ukrainian media reported that Donetsk area authorities have been getting ready to announce obligatory evacuations from seven extra villages within the area that the Kremlin claimed in 2022 was a part of Russia.
Moscow’s in a single day drone assault on Ukraine broken buildings within the southern Black Sea metropolis of Odesa the place AFP journalists noticed residents inspecting destroyed automobiles and residential buildings as daybreak broke.
And at the very least three individuals have been killed within the aerial assaults in a single day and into Thursday — one every within the Kherson, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia areas, in keeping with native officers.
The air pressure mentioned it had shot down 74 Russian-deployed drones in 11 completely different areas, out of a complete of 106 drones launched by Moscow at Ukraine.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
