RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Drop the ‘theatrics’ if you want to talk, Putin tells Kiev

Western rhetoric on the Ukraine conflict appears to be shifting in the right direction, although Kiev must end its “theatrics” and remove legal obstacles before peace talks can resume, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.

“If the Ukrainian side really wants negotiations to happen, it should be done without any theatrics,” the Russian leader told journalists on Wednesday at a press conference in China.

Putin stated that Ukraine must abolish a law which has declared peace talks impossible as long as he remains in power. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky signed the ban more than a year ago, as his government pursued a military victory over Russia with Western military assistance.

The Russian leader claimed that Kiev has little to show its foreign backers despite months of fighting, and that some Western officials are apparently deviating from their declared goal of defeating Russia on the battlefield.

“This transformation leads in the right direction,” Putin said. “I commend that. But it is not enough.”

The Russian president named EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell as an example of a Western figure shifting his stance.

On a visit to China last week, Borrell stated during a press conference with Foreign Minister Wang Yi that “we count on China to support Ukraine peace negotiations.”

China has long advocated a diplomatic resolution of the Ukraine crisis.

Putin made the comments on Ukraine when asked by journalists to provide details of his discussions with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whom he met in Beijing on Tuesday.

The Russian leader said he had not told Orban anything that contradicted Moscow’s public stance on the Ukraine conflict.

Commenting on claims that Orban was “pro-Russian,” Putin said the prime minister was actually “pro-Hungarian,” and suggested that detractors are jealous of his “courage to defend the interests of his people,” unlike many European politicians today.

Putin and Orban both traveled to China to participate in the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, and met on the sidelines of the event.

 

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ten civilians killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine, Kyiv reports progress in south

Russian attacks overnight and on Wednesday killed at least 10 civilians in Ukraine, while senior Ukrainian military officials said their troops had made some headway in counteroffensive operations in the southern theatre.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address, said the death toll had risen to five from four in a morning missile strike on a residential building in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia.

Officials said a 31-year-old woman was killed in an attack on the village of Obukhivka in the central region of Dnipropetrovsk and a man and a woman were killed in an overnight attack on the southern region of Kherson.

On Wednesday evening, Ukraine's Interior Ministry said two bodies had been pulled out from under the rubble of a food shop hit by a Russian missile near the southern city of Mykolaiv.

Local officials in Sumy region, on the Russian border, said an "infrastructure site" had been hit in a drone attack, but provided no further details.

"The evil state continues to use terror and wage war on civilians. Russian terror must be defeated," Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

The apartment building in Zaporizhzhia suffered serious damage to one entrance from the third to the fifth storeys, he said. A picture posted by Zelenskiy on Telegram showed the building with a gaping hole in the middle, its entrance destroyed and windows smashed.

In Obukhivka, near the city of Dnipro, residents said a strong explosion blew out windows and knocked people to the ground. Officials said about 20 houses were damaged.

"A woman all covered in blood ran out from one of the houses, shouting and crying. I think that her daughter died," Victor, 32, a construction worker, told Reuters television. "We entered the house and saw a dead girl."

SOUTHERN ADVANCE CONTINUES: GENERAL

Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, in charge of Ukraine's operations in the south, said Ukrainian forces were proceeding with their planned advance towards the Sea of Azov.

Troops from the Tavria, or southern, group of forces "are continuing their offensive. They have had partial success to the south of Robotyne," Tarnavskyi wrote on Telegram.

Robotyne is one of a group of villages in the south that Ukraine wants to secure as part of the advance - aimed at severing a land bridge linking Russian positions in the south and east.

Oleksandr Shtupun, a spokesperson for southern troops, also reported progress near Robotyne.

Shtupun told national television that shelling had eased around the town of Avdiivka, the focus of fierce Russian attacks in the past week west of the Russian-held town of Donetsk. But troops in the sector were preparing for a variety of scenarios.

Ukrainian troops are also trying to recapture land in eastern regions.

The General Staff, in its evening report, said its forces had repelled attacks in several areas of the 1,000-km (620-mile) front line - including 15 around the long-contested town of Maryinka in Donetsk region and 10 further north near Kupiansk.

Russia's Defence Ministry gave few details of its troops' operations, but said a depot of Ukrainian aviation equipment had been destroyed in central Dnipropetrovsk region.

Reuters could not verify accounts from either side.