New Delhi: Russia said Wednesday it would end its military operation in Ukraine if President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed to conditions put forward during negotiations.
Russian media quoted the Kremlin as saying, “Withdrawal of Russian forces from the Kyiv region is a gesture of goodwill to create conditions for negotiations, during which serious discussions are possible.”
Russia wants Ukraine to drop all plans of joining NATO, a condition Ukraine has accepted. Ukraine, on the other hand, wants legally-binding security guarantees from Western countries like that in the NATO rules, where member nations come to the aid of each other in case of an attack.
After the in-person talks in Istanbul last week, Russia announced steps for a “drastic reduction in military activity in the Kyiv and Chernihiv directions” and the possibility of meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
But reports of severe atrocities and attacks in Ukraine continued even after this seeming breakthrough, prompting Zelenskyy to cast doubts Tuesday on any talks with Vladimir Putin unless Russia owned up to the crimes in his country.
In a fiery speech to the United Nations Security Council Tuesday, Zelenskky asked the international body to act immediately or “dissolve yourself altogether”.
Zelenskyy showed the 15-member council harrowing videos of civilian dead bodies, he said were victims of Russian aggression. He asked the UNSC to expel Russia so that it could not “block decisions about its own aggression, its own war”.
Russia, as one of the five permanent members of the council, has a veto which it has repeatedly used to scuttle resolutions and negotiations in the world forum.
Zelenskyy also likened Russia’s excesses in Ukrainian cities to violence carried out by terrorists such as the ISIS.
Also read: India against Ukraine conflict, but can’t burden common man with fallout, says Jaishankar