The Kremlin said on Tuesday, July 22, not waiting “miraculous advances” during the next negotiations between Russians and Ukrainians scheduled for Wednesday in Turkey, where Moscow should maintain their maximalist conditions to end their military assault.
This third session of direct conversations in Istanbul will intervene once again under the pressure of US President Donald Trump, who gave Russia 50 days to reach an agreement with kyiv, under the penalty of severe sanctions.
If Russia has said it several times willing to negotiate several times, again showed the hopes of rapid conflict resolution launched in February 2022 on Tuesday.
“We intend to defend our interests”
“Of course, there is no reason to wait miraculous advances, but we intend to defend our interests, guarantee them and perform the tasks that we establish from the beginning,” said the spokesman for the Russian presidency, said Dmitri Peskov to the press.
He also said that there was “a lot of work to do” before any meeting between presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky, a format affirmed by the Ukrainian leader.
If Volodymyr Zelensky announced Monday night that these conversations would take place on Wednesday, Dmitri Peskov for their part said that “they will take place this week.”
The Ukrainian leader has also announced the composition of the delegation of his country, which will be carried out as previous times by former Defense Minister Roustem Oumerov, considered to end diplomat and will include representatives of intelligence, diplomacy and presidency services.
The composition of the Russian team was not revealed, but the previous times was directed by a second planning official, for kyiv’s disgust: former Minister of Culture and Nationalist Historian Vladimir Medinski.
Dmitri Peskov had pointed out on Monday that the positions of the two fields continued to be “diametrically opposite.”
A high 30 -day fire pushed by Moscow
Russia affirms that Ukraine gives him four partially occupied regions of the East and the south of the country, in addition to Crimea attached in 2014, renunciation of the deliveries of Western weapons and any membership in NATO.
Unacceptable conditions for Ukraine, which want the pure and simple withdrawal of the Russian troops of their territory and Western security guarantees, including the continuation of weapons deliveries and the deployment of a European contingent, which is opposed to Moscow.
kyiv also insists, in concert with his European allies, on the need for a high fire of 30 days, to which Moscow refuses, whose forces have the advantage in the field. In this context, the two previous sessions of direct conversations in Istanbul, in May and June, had only led to prisoner exchanges and bodies of murdered soldiers.
Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday to discuss with the new exchanges of Moscow and the repatriation of Ukrainian children taken to Russia. He also said he wanted to “prepare a meeting” with Vladimir Putin to “really end this war.”
On the ground, battles and mortal strikes continued on both sides on Tuesday. On the Russian side, three people died in attacks by Ukrainian unmanned airplanes in the occupied region of Kherson in southern Ukraine and one in Belgorod’s in Russia, according to local authorities.
Thirty people killed on Tuesday in Ukraine
In Ukraine, a ten -year -old boy died and around thirty people were injured in Russian strikes in the Donetsk (East), Soumy (Northeast), Kherson, Zaporijia and Odessa (South) regions, the authorities reported.
In the front, Russian troops continue to advance in front of an opponent who needs recruits and armaments. The Ministry of Defense claimed the capture of the town of Novotoretské, near the city of Pokrovsk in the east.
The Ukrainian media also reported that a group of Russian saboteators had managed to enter Pokrovsk, an important city for the logistics of kyiv’s forces, at the intersection of several paths in this region where most fights take place.
Source: BFM TV
