Russia says it stopped military offensive to negotiate, but Ukraine refused to talk

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, ordered the day before to stop the offensive of the Russian Army in Ukraine pending a response from Kiev on a negotiation process to stop the war, but ordered its restart after accusing his counterpart of refusing dialogue the Kremlin said today.

“Yesterday, due to the pending talks with the Ukrainian leadership, the commander-in-chief and president of Russia ordered to stop the advance of the bulk of the Russian troops”stated the spokesman for the Russian Presidency, Dmitri Peskov.

According to the Kremlin representative, despite this, “in a number of places clashes continued against mobile groups of nationalists and supporters of (Ukrainian collaborator Stepan) Bandera.”

However, he asserted, in the absence of a response from Kiev, Putin announced this Saturday the continuation of the operation.

“While the Ukrainian side essentially rejected the talks, today the advance of the Russian troops was resumed in accordance with the plan of the operation,” Peskov said.

The Ukrainian version differs from the Kremlin version.

Last night Kiev denied that it refuses to sit at the negotiating table with Russia and assured that at the same time the parties were holding consultations on the place and time of the possible dialogue to end the war launched by the Kremlin against the country.

“I must refute the accusations that we have refused to negotiate. Ukraine has been and remains ready to talk about a ceasefire and peace.” Sergii Nykyforov, spokesman for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said on his Facebook account.

“This is our constant position. We agreed to a proposal from the President of the Russian Federation. At this time, consultations are being held between the parties on the place and time of the negotiation process”, Indian

He argued that “the sooner negotiations begin, the more chances there are of returning to normal.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zajárova, said shortly before that the authorities of Ukraine they proposed to Russia talk this Saturday about possible negotiations between the parties and did not want to advance on that matter on Friday.

Peskov said on Friday that Putin had accepted Kiev’s proposal to negotiate and suggested Minsk as the venue for the talks, to which Ukraine proposed Warsaw as an alternative location, after which it “broke off communication.”

Zelensky himself declared on Thursday night that he was willing to discuss his country’s neutrality in exchange for some guarantees for Ukraine.

Russia’s main security demands related to Ukraine refer to its demilitarization and that the neighboring country never join NATO.

“We are not afraid of Russia, we are not afraid to talk to Russia, to talk about everything: about guarantees for our state, about the status of neutrality”, the Ukrainian president said about it.

From the Russian Foreign Ministry they pointed out, in turn, that the possible negotiations with Kiev would not necessarily mean the end of the military intervention, whose objective is the “demilitarization” and “denazification” of Ukraine.

Putin He also considers that, in these circumstances, it is easier to negotiate with the Ukrainian military, whom he called to rise up.

He proposed to them “seize power”.

“Take the power in your hands! Apparently with you it will be easier to reach an agreement than with that gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis who have settled in Kiev and have kidnapped the entire Ukrainian people”, declared the head of the Kremlin at a meeting with the Russian Security Council.

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