The president of Ukraine assured in an interview with AP that the war with Russia is in a new phase, with winter expected to complicate the fighting. “Winter is a completely new phase of the war,” said Volodymyr Zelensky, who admitted that the summer counter-offensive did not have the expected results. “We are not going to retreat, I am satisfied. We are fighting with the second (best) army in the world, I am satisfied,” he said, but added that “we are losing people, I am not satisfied. We do not have all got the weapons we wanted, no I can be satisfied, but I can’t complain too much either.”
Zelensky also said he wanted to increase Ukraine’s domestic arms production, which would reduce the country’s dependence on outside suppliers. In this sense, the Ukrainian president stated that he hopes that allies will grant Ukraine licenses to manufacture and repair its weapons, and at the same time wants cheap loans from the West to finance these plans.
On the other side of the barricade, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said his army was advancing “on all fronts” in Ukraine. “Russian forces are effectively and steadily inflicting damage on the Ukrainian armed forces, significantly reducing their combat capabilities,” Shoigu said, adding that the Ukrainian armed forces had lost more than 125,000 troops in the past six months.
Shoigu also added that Russia is building a total of seven training camps in occupied Ukrainian territory, two of which are already ready for use. The Russian defense official also said that further training of military personnel is planned for 2024, to complete the tasks of the “special military operation.”
On the diplomatic front, the Russian Foreign Minister stated that Moscow does not recognize signals from Kiev or the West that there is a desire for a political solution to the war in Ukraine. “So far we have not seen any sign from Kiev or its leaders that they are ready for a political settlement,” said Sergei Lavrov in Skopje, where he took part in the 30th Meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. (OSCE).
On the other hand, “When we listen to the leaders of NATO and the European Union, they say only one thing: we have a duty to support Ukraine, because if Ukraine is defeated, it will be the defeat of the entire West. ” added the head of Moscow’s diplomacy. To start a political process you need two, like tango, but the guys on the other side are not dancing tango, but break dancing, he added.
Therefore, he emphasizes that Russia sees no reason to revise the objectives of its military campaign in Ukraine, which Putin defined as the “demilitarization and denazification” of the neighboring country. It should be recalled that in early October Volodymyr Zelensky signed a formal decree that “confirms the impossibility of conducting negotiations with the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin” and binds all Ukrainian citizens.
These statements from Lavrov come on the day the results of a poll were announced, showing that for the first time since the conflict began, a majority of Russians (74%) said they would like Vladimir Putin to sign a peace deal would sign. immediately.. This consultation was conducted by Russian Field, a nonpartisan polling agency based in Moscow, and reported by The Economist.
The UN announced that the war in Ukraine has already caused about 900,000 movements of refugees and displaced persons, including those trying to return to their homes and those who have abandoned them due to hostilities. These figures were revealed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ new director for Europe, Philippe Leclerc, who said many of those returning are doing so to relatively stable areas of the country, such as central and western Ukraine.
Attack on trains in Siberia
Ukraine claimed responsibility for attacks on a Russian railway line in Siberia, which hit two trains, in the latest sabotage incident reported on Russian territory but the first thousands of kilometers from the front. The first attack took place on Wednesday and the second yesterday. The Baikal-Amur line is more than 4,000 kilometers long and runs along the borders of China and Mongolia.
Also this Friday, Russia announced that it had arrested a citizen with dual Russian and Italian nationality, suspected of carrying out sabotage attacks on a railway and an air base on orders from Ukraine.
with agencies
Source: DN
