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Russia Ukraine News Highlights | Ukraine’s priorities at the Ukrainian-Russian talks in Turkey this week will be “sovereignty and territorial integrity,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told his nation Sunday in his nightly address.
“We are looking for peace, really, without delay,” he said. “There is an opportunity and a need for a face-to-face meeting in Turkey. This is not bad. Let’s see the outcome.” This week, he said, “I will continue to appeal to the parliaments of other countries” to remind them of the dire situation in besieged cities like Mariupol.
He thanked Ukraine’s armed forces, who he said “are holding back the occupiers, and in some areas they are even taking steps forward. Well done.” Zelenskyy also told independent Russian journalists Sunday that his government would consider declaring neutrality and offering security guarantees to Russia, repeating earlier statements. That would include keeping Ukraine nuclear-free, he said.
He told the reporters that the issue of neutrality – and agreeing to stay out of NATO – should be put to Ukrainian voters in a referendum after Russian troops withdraw. He said that a vote could take place within a few months once Russian troops leave.
Russia quickly banned Zelenskyy's interview from being published. Roskomnadzor, which regulates communications for Moscow, issued the ban Sunday, saying there could be action taken against the Russian media outlets that took part, which included “those that are foreign media outlets acting as foreign agents.”
Zelenskyy responded by saying Moscow was afraid of a relatively short conversation with journalists. “It would be funny if it weren’t so tragic,” he said, according to the Ukrainian news agency RBK Ukraina.
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The United States assesses that Ukrainian forces have retaken the town of Trostyanets, south of Sumy, from Russian forces, a senior U.S. defense official said on Monday. "The Ukrainians are continuing to try to take back ground," the official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity. (Reuters)
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday he has directed the world body's aid chief "to explore with the parties involved" the possibility of a humanitarian ceasefire in Ukraine. Guterres also appealed for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire "to allow for progress in serious political negotiations, aimed at reaching a peace agreement based on the principles of the United Nations Charter." (Reuters)
Sanctioned Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian peace negotiators suffered symptoms of suspected poisoning earlier this month after a meeting in Kyiv, the Wall Street Journalreportedon Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.Abramovich, who accepted a Ukrainian request to help negotiate an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and at least two senior members of the Ukrainian team, were affected, the WSJ report said.
Their symptoms included red eyes, constant and painful tearing, and peeling skin on their faces and hands, the WSJ report added.
Abramovich and the Ukrainian negotiators, including Crimean Tatar lawmaker Rustem Umerov, have since improved and their lives are not in danger, WSJ reported.A person familiar with the matter confirmed the incident to Reuters but said Abramovich had not allowed it to stop him working. (Reuters)
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky saidhe spoke to Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi about Kyiv's security concerns, and urged Rome tohelpto create a system that would provide Ukraine security guarantees against any potential act of aggression in thefuture.
"Discussed the course of countering Russian aggression. Thanked for the important defense and humanitarian support. Ukrainian people will remember this. We appreciate Italy's willingness to join the creation of a system of security guarantees for Ukraine," Zelenskiy said on Twitter.
There have been more than 100 deaths in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv since Russia's invasion of its neighbour, the city's mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Monday.
In an address to city councillors of Florence, which is twinned with Kyiv, Klitschko said more than 20 corpses could not be identified and four of the victims were children, while another 16 injured children are in hospital.(Reuters)
Ukrainian forces on Monday recaptured a small village on the outskirts of Ukraine's second-largest city Kharkiv, as Kyiv's forces mount counterattacks against a stalling Russian invasion.Members of the Ukrainian army were clearing and securing destroyed homes in the settlement of Malaya Rohan, about five kilometres (three miles) from Kharkiv, after pushing out Russian forces. AFP journalists saw what appeared to be the bodies of two Russian soldiers in the streets of the village that was largely destroyed by the fighting.The remains of two other soldiers had been thrown into a nearby well."There are Russian corpses all over the place," a Ukrainian soldier told AFP, who said more than two dozen soldiers dispatched to Ukraine by Moscow had been killed in the fight for the hamlet.AFP journalists also observed remnants of several Russian armoured vehicles abandoned in the yards of homes in the village.Ukraine launched its attack on the Russian-controlled village in the middle of last week, but it took several days to rout Moscow's troops hiding in cellars and nearby forests, the military said."Our troops are liberating Malaya Rohan, and this is hugely important because Russian troops are constantly shelling residential areas of Kharkiv from there," the mayor of Ukraine's second-most populated city, Igor Terekhov said earlier.Russian and Ukrainian troops meanwhile have been fighting for several days for control of the neighbouring town of Vilkhivka, a few kilometres further north.Ukrainian officials have also accused the Russian army of using it as a base to shell Kharkiv.
The Kremlin said on Monday that Russian investigators would look into a video circulated on social media that purported to show Ukrainian forces mistreating captured Russian soldiers. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the video, which he said contained "monstrous images", needed to be legally assessed and for those who took part in what he described as torture to be held responsible. Reuters has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the video cited by the Kremlin. The Ukrainian government did not immediately respond directly to Peskov's comments although senior officials had earlier portrayed the video as a fake. "Currently, no one can confirm or deny the veracity of this video. It's not known where it's happening, or who the participants are," military spokesperson Oleksander Motuzyanyk said. He referred Reuters to comments made by Valery Zaluzhny, the chief commander of Ukraine's armed forces, before Peskov announced the Russian investigation into the video. "The enemy produces and shares videos with the inhuman treatment of alleged 'Russian prisoners' by 'Ukrainian soldiers' in order to discredit the Ukrainian Defence Forces," Zaluzhny said.
One of the architects of the Moscow-backed separatist rebellion in eastern Ukraine eight years ago said Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a mistake, in comments that show the Kremlin cannot count on support from all pro-Russian opponents of Kyiv. Alexei Alexandrov was one of the leaders of a movement in 2014 to reject Kyiv's rule and create an autonomous pro-Moscow territory in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, triggering a war against Ukrainian government forces. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Russia attacked Ukraine last month in part to protect the separatist territory from Kyiv, though Western states say that is a pretext for an unprovoked land grab. In an interview with Reuters last Friday, Alexandrov said: "All this could have been resolved earlier, mainly through diplomatic means and perhaps an insignificant use of force. But that was not done, and that is a mistake on all sides." He said that because Moscow failed to negotiate a settlement with Kyiv guaranteeing autonomy for the Donbas and rights for its residents, by the start of this year armed conflict became unavoidable. Alexandrov said Moscow had, over many years, failed to grasp how to deal with Ukraine, whose rulers he said were set on crushing the identity of the Russian-speaking community in eastern Ukraine, an allegation that Kyiv and its allies deny. "Moscow's reaction was always late, and never got to grips with the situation," he said. "That was a mistake, and we are reaping the consequences now in blood, and multiple victims on both sides."
Germany on Monday urged a more even distribution of Ukrainian refugees within the European Union after millions of people fled to the 27-nation bloc since Russia launched its invasion of the country on February 24. "We need to more actively distribute refugees within the EU and show solidarity by taking in refugees," German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told reporters as she arrived for a meeting with her EU counterparts in Brussels. Faeser added Berlin was not at aiming at fixed quotas but rather an index linked to the number of refugees already being hosted compared to the population size of each country.
Cash-strapped Sri Lanka's national carrier on Monday ended direct flights to Russia -- the crisis-hit island's biggest source of tourists -- because of the Ukraine war.It was the only operator of direct connections and the move is a major blow to Sri Lanka's hopes of reviving its pandemic-battered tourism industry and earning foreign exchange to import food, fuel and medicines, which are in short supply.Sri Lankan Airlines said it was stopping the Colombo-Moscow route with immediate effect, blaming prohibitive insurance rates after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.In addition, international sanctions on Russian banks made it impossible for its Moscow office to repatriate its earnings, a spokesman told AFP.No Russian airline operates directflights between the two countries.Sri Lanka is grappling with its worst economic crisis since its independence from Britain in 1948.Out of the 82,300 foreign tourists who visited the country in January, about 13,500 or 16.4 percent were Russians, followed by 11,750 Indians and 7,770 Ukrainians.Sri Lankan Airlines operated three flights a week to the Russian capital until fighting broke out last month and had reduced the frequency to two.Travel agents said Colombo-Moscow airfares on alternative Middle Eastern carriers spiked after the Sri Lankan Airlines decision.The airline said its pullout was due to "operational restrictions that are outside of the airline's control" and promised to refund those with flight bookings."We are closely monitoring the situation and we want to resume flights on this sector as soon as possible," an airline official told AFP. "Commercial factors forced us to halt the flights."The collapse of the leisure sector soon after the pandemic broke out in 2020 saw Sri Lanka lose more than four billion dollars in tourism revenue. Russia is also a key buyer of Sri Lanka's tea, the main export commodity.The country is gripped by shortages of food and fuel as commercial banks have run out of dollars to finance essential imports.Colombo has said it will seek an IMF bailout as the country's foreign currency reserves had hit $2 billion at the end of February, compared to $7.5 billion two years ago.
