Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s call for the international community to “force Russia into real peace talks” reflected a shift in rhetoric. In late September, after Russia illegally annexed four Ukrainian regions, he signed a decree stating “the impossibility of holding talks” with Putin. However, the conditions laid out by the Ukrainian leader late Monday appear to be unnecessary for Moscow, so it is hard to see how Zelensky’s latest comments will advance the talks. Zelensky reiterated that his terms for dialogue are the return of all occupied Ukrainian territories, compensation for war damages and the prosecution of war crimes. He did not specify how world leaders should force Russia into talks. Western weapons and aid have been key to Ukraine’s ability to withstand the Russian invasion, which some initially expected would break the country with relative ease. This means that Kyiv cannot ignore how the war looks in the US and the European Union, according to political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko. “Zelensky is trying to maneuver because the promise of negotiations does not oblige Kyiv to do anything, but it makes it possible to maintain the support of Western partners,” said Fesenko, head of the independent Kyiv-based Penta Center think tank. “A categorical refusal to hold talks plays into the Kremlin’s hands, so Zelensky is changing tactics and talking about the possibility of a dialogue, but under conditions that make everything very clear,” he added. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks via video at the COP27 UN climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt on Tuesday. (Peter Dejong/The Associated Press)
Intermediate US terms could complicate support
While support for Ukraine has garnered strong bipartisan support in the US Congress, a growing conservative opposition could complicate this next year if Republicans take control of the House in Tuesday’s election. Recent comments by Republican leader Kevin McCarthy that lawmakers would not cut a “blank check” on Ukraine reflect the party’s growing skepticism about the cost of support. In particular, Republican lawmakers who support aid to Ukraine see an opportunity to pass another tranche of aid this year with the current Congress. Russia and Ukraine held several rounds of talks in Belarus and Turkey early in the war, which is now nearing the end of nine months, and Zelensky has repeatedly called for a one-on-one meeting with Putin – something the Kremlin has blocked. A cow grazes near a damaged building in Arkhanhelske village, Kherson region, Ukraine, on Tuesday. (Viacheslav Ratynskyi/Reuters) Talks that stalled after the delegations’ last meeting, held in Istanbul in March, yielded no results. Zelensky said on Monday that Kyiv “has repeatedly proposed [talks] and to which we always received crazy Russian responses with new terrorist attacks, bombings or blackmail.” Russia renewed calls for talks after it began losing ground to a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the east and south in September. Zelensky rejected the possibility of negotiating with Putin later that month after the Russian leader illegally claimed four regions of Ukraine as Russian territory.
Moscow blames Kyiv for lack of ‘good will’
Zelensky said on Monday that Ukraine’s terms for dialogue include “restoring (Ukraine’s) territorial integrity … compensation for all war damage, punishment for every war criminal and guarantees that it won’t happen again.” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said on Tuesday that Moscow was not setting conditions for resuming talks. He blamed Kyiv for a lack of “good will”. “That’s their choice,” Rudenko said. “We have always declared our readiness for such negotiations.” A Ukrainian police investigator works at the scene of the recent Russian bombing in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, on Tuesday. (Andriy Andriyenko/The Associated Press) Two men eat by candlelight in a restaurant during a local power outage in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday. About four million people were without power in 14 regions plus the capital Kyiv as of Tuesday afternoon, Zelensky said. (Ed Ram/Getty Images) Putin and other Russian officials have repeatedly claimed that the United States is blocking Ukraine from participating in peace talks, which several countries have offered to broker. In an interview released Tuesday, Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Western countries would not pressure Kyiv to negotiate on Moscow’s terms. “Ukraine receives quite effective weapons from its partners, primarily the US,” Podolyak said. “We are pushing the Russian army out of our territory. And given that, it is nonsense to force us to negotiate and de facto accept Russia’s ultimatum! Nobody will.”
US pledges $25 million in winter aid
The US ambassador to the United Nations has assured Ukrainian farmers that extending a wartime agreement that allowed Ukrainian grain and other goods to be transported across the Black Sea was a priority for the UN. The deal brokered by the UN and Turkey allowed more than 10 million tons of grain to leave Ukrainian ports and travel along a designated corridor. It is set to expire on November 19. A Russian diplomat on Tuesday cited Moscow’s displeasure with its implementation and said the Kremlin has not decided whether to extend it. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, left, talks to children at a refugee center and people who lost their homes as a result of Russia’s invasion, in Irpin, Ukraine, on Tuesday. (Sergei Supinsky/The Associated Press) During a visit to Kyiv, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield was asked if she was telling Ukrainians about American ideas for ending the war. She replied: “Russia started this and Russia can end it, and they can end it by pulling out their troops and stopping the atrocities that they are committing against the Ukrainian people.” He announced $25 million in additional aid to help Ukrainians get through the winter. In his nightly speech, Zelensky said about four million people were without power in 14 regions plus the city of Kyiv as of Tuesday afternoon, but on a stabilization rather than an emergency basis. Planned hourly blackouts will affect the entire country on Wednesday, Ukraine’s electricity grid company Ukrenergo said. In other developments:
In Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where the Russians are fighting to gain full control, Moscow’s shelling has killed three civilians and wounded seven others in the past 24 hours, according to Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kirilenko. He said casualties occurred in the town of Bakhmut, a key target of Russia’s attack on Donetsk, and the town of Krasnohorivka. Ukraine’s deputy defense minister last week described the Bakhmut region as “the epicenter” of fighting in eastern Ukraine. Elsewhere, two civilians were seriously injured by unexploded mines in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, where Kiev forces recaptured large swaths of territory in September, Kharkiv Governor Oleh Syniehubov said. In the partially occupied Kherson region in the south, where Ukrainian troops are waging a successful counteroffensive, Russian authorities said they had completed the evacuation of residents ahead of expected Ukrainian advances. The Kremlin-appointed administration tried to relocate tens of thousands of people. Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press show a rapid expansion of a cemetery in southern Ukraine in the months after Russian forces seized the port of Mariupol. It is unclear how many people were buried there.
Workers produce wood stoves at a small factory in Lviv, Ukraine, on Tuesday. As fears grow about a steady supply of natural gas and electricity in Ukraine this winter, people are looking for alternative energy sources. (Pavlo Palamarchuk/Reuters)
