Ukraine's independence, terriotorial integrity not up for debate - Zelensky
Following a telephone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday, David Arahamiya, a member of the Ukrainian negotiating team, announced that the next round of Russian-Ukrainian talks will be held in Turkey from Monday to Wednesday.
In a video message overnight, Zelensky made clear that the most important outcome to be achieved remained respect for Ukraine's territorial integrity and the development of effective security guarantees. These will allow peace and a return to normal life in the country, he said.
The most important issues in the negotiations with Russia are security guarantees, neutrality and Ukraine’s nuclear-free status,
he stressed when speaking to Russian journalists in a 90-minute video call, an interview that the Russian authorities had pre-emptively warned Russian media to refrain from reporting. Zelenskiy spoke in Russian throughout, the Guardian reported.
We do not discuss ‘denazification’ and demilitarisation at all. I said that we will not sit at the negotiating table at all if we talk about some kind of demilitarisation, some kind of ‘denazification’. For me, these are completely incomprehensible things,
he added.
As for the military objective, he said it was to minimise casualties, shorten the duration of the war and withdraw Russian forces to "areas of compromise" before the 24 February offensive.
The Ukrainian army said last night that Russian troops, who have been attacking the country since 24 February, had again struck Ukrainian forces and military infrastructure in several areas, with the Kharkiv region being among the main targets.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk announced on Sunday evening that another 1,100 civilians had been evacuated from the most besieged areas, including Mariupol, through two humanitarian corridors.
She also announced on her Telegram account that Russian forces were "militarising" the site of the Chernobyl nuclear power station and storing a large amount of ammunition "in close proximity" to the station.
It should be noted that recently Russian occupation troops have been using old and unconditional ammunition more often, which increases the risk of their detonation even when loading and transporting,
Sky News cited her as saying.
The militarisation of the exclusion zone "poses a very serious risk of damaging the insulation structures built over the station’s fourth unit after its 1986 explosion," she added.
According to a recent British intelligence report, Russia continues to blockade the Ukrainian coast of the Black Sea, cutting off Ukraine from international maritime trade. Russian ships are also launching missile attacks against Ukrainian targets.
On Sunday, US President Joe Biden personally confirmed that he has not called for regime change in Russia. In a statement in Warsaw the previous day, the President had said that Putin "cannot remain in power", but his words were later clarified by the White House and Secretary of State Antony Blinken as not talking about power within the country, but about preventing Putin from exercising power over Russia's neighbours and the region. Biden was also asked by a journalist on Sunday, as he was leaving a church service in Washington, whether he had called for regime change in Russia, and he said no.
"[...] it is up to the Russian people to decide who governs them and the future of their country," education secretary Nadhim Zahawi told Sky News.
"I think the Russian people are pretty fed up, not only because they are watching their friends - and some of them have family in Ukraine - being attacked by the Putin regime - clearly war crimes have been committed because they are targeting innocent civilians, in civilian areas.
"But I think President Biden is right to say that Putin has no place in the Ukraine. They have to make sure that they withdraw from Ukraine because it is an illegal invasion of the Ukraine - I think he is absolutely right in that."
