The French president’s state visit to the United States brought two moments from the script. Show no remorse – “the United States is not apologizing” – Joe Biden made a concession to Emmanuel Macron, promising that newly approved legislation to encourage “green” industries will be reviewed, once stimulus taxes depend on domestic production.
Also at the press conference of both leaders, the American said he was available to meet Vladimir Putin as long as he showed interest in ending the war in Ukraine. In either case, however, Biden’s good intentions should go no further. Democrat Ron Wyden, the senator in charge of the finance committee and one of those responsible for legislation under French fire, immediately said he is not interested in tinkering with the law. And the Kremlin flatly rejected the scenario proposed by the President of the United States.
The Russian presidency argued for two reasons why talks between Putin and Biden fell through. First, because the American said: “There is a way to end this war in a rational way: Putin withdraws from Ukraine”. According to spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, Moscow “apparently” does not accept this condition.
The second reason also has to do with the occupied territories and the territories that Russia intends to conquer. Peskov said the Russian leader was available for talks to secure Russia’s interests, but added that Washington’s position “compromises” any possible talks. “The United States does not recognize any new territories as part of the Russian Federation,” Peskov said, referring to the Ukrainian regions the Kremlin claims to have annexed.
The position is the same as almost anywhere in the world except North Korea, due to alleged referenda in four partially occupied regions of Ukraine. “This complicates the search for bases for mutual talks,” said the spokesman, recalling the “failed” attempts at talks with NATO, the OSCE and the United States, initiated by Putin, before the invasion of 24 February. Kremlin conclusion: “The special military operation continues.”
The rejection of talks with Washington came on the same day that Putin tried to convince Chancellor Olaf Scholz of his actions, criticizing Germany and the West for “destructive policies” in supplying weapons and training to Ukrainian troops. According to Putin, the “destructive policy” means that financial and military support from the West “leads Kiev to reject the idea of any negotiations”. Ukraine has said talks will not start until after the withdrawal of Russian troops.
A day after his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, defended attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, claiming that power plants help “kill Russians”, it was Putin’s turn to justify the strategy, but now arguing that it is an “inevitable” strategy. reaction after the “provocations” of Ukraine, read the attack on the Kerch bridge, which connects Russia with the Crimean peninsula. On the other end of the line, Scholz asked Putin to withdraw troops from Ukraine so that “a diplomatic solution can be found as soon as possible”.
In a different kind of war, Ukrainian diplomatic missions continue to receive suspicious packages. After a booby-trapped package exploded at the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid and five others were neutralized in Spain (including one with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez as the recipient), the same embassy has now received an envelope with blood and animal eyes. A similar situation occurred at the embassies in Budapest, The Hague, Prague, Rome and Warsaw, and at the consulates in Brno, Krakow and Naples, in what the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kuleba, called a “well-orchestrated campaign of terror and intimidation”.
Hopeful IAEA Director
The director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, expressed confidence in a close agreement with Moscow and Kiev for the establishment of a safety zone around the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, in Enerhodar.
In an interview with The Republic, the Argentine was ready to meet with the leaders of Ukraine and Russia, who occupied the center in March, to “find a solution as soon as possible”, as he had referred to the end of the year. “Our goal is to prevent a nuclear accident, not to create a situation that favors one party,” he said.
Source: DN
