RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
No grounds for ending Ukraine conflict – Kremlin
Russian authorities do not believe that the fighting between Moscow and Kiev can be stopped at the moment, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.
Peskov was asked by RIA-Novosti on Monday if there are currently any prerequisites for ending the Ukraine conflict.
The spokesman gave a short but conclusive reply: “No.”
He had reiterated last week that Russia “remains open to talks” to end the hostilities. “However, since there has been no progress in terms of Ukraine’s readiness for negotiations, we are continuing with our [military] operation,”Peskov stressed.
According to the spokesman, the dynamics on the battlefield “are self-evident: we are on the advance.”
In the fall of 2022, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky signed a decree banning the Kiev government from any talks with Moscow. The legislation remains in force.
Throughout the conflict, Zelensky and his Western backers have been discussing his so-called ‘peace formula,’ which demanded that Russia withdraw from Crimea and the other territories claimed by Ukraine – the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, and the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, which officially became part of the Russian state as a result of referendums in late 2022. It also called for Moscow to pay reparations and for the formation of a war crimes tribunal.
Russian authorities have rejected this proposal as unacceptable, “detached from reality” and a sign of Kiev’s unwillingness to seek a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
However, the Ukrainian leader has recently abandoned his talk of “victory,” claiming instead that he wants a “just peace,” coupled with security guarantees from the West in the form of NATO membership, with the status of the new Russian regions undetermined.
Last week, the Washington Post reported, citing a senior member of Zelensky’s government, that officials in Kiev are “starting to believe” that the conflict with Russia will be resolved in 2025. The shift in attitude is a direct result of US President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to put a swift end to the fighting once he returns to office, according to the paper.
During his end-of-year press conference earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow is open to negotiations with Kiev without any preconditions other than those already agreed in Istanbul in 2022.
These terms involve a neutral, non-aligned status for Ukraine – prohibiting it from joining NATO – as well as restrictions on the deployment of foreign weaponry in the country. Putin also stressed that any talks must take into account the realities on the ground that have emerged since 2022.
WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Scores of Ukrainian and Russian POWs head back home after swap
Ukraine and Russia carried out a new exchange of prisoners of war on Monday, with the two sides bringing home a combined total of more than 300 former captives.
Kyiv brought home 189 former captives, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Russia's Defence Ministry said, while the Russian ministry said 150 Russian servicemen were returning home.
The Russian ministry said the captives had been released in Belarus, Moscow's close ally in the 34-month-old war with Ukraine, and would be transferred to Russia.
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Reuters Television footage in Ukraine showed waiting spouses and some servicemen, many wrapped in blue and yellow national flags, weeping openly as they were reunited well after dark outside a building.
A child's incredulous voice resounded over a mobile telephone: "Dad, is that you?"
"My son is 5 years old now, the last time I saw him he was 2 years old," said Serhii, who was captured by Russian forces at the Azovstal steel mill in the southern port Mariupol, which withstood a siege for nearly three months in 2022.
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"That's why my son probably didn't recognise me. I used to have a beard and hair. I lost 20 kg (44 pounds)."
For some former captives the return to freedom involved adjustment.
"Even now I'm holding my hands behind my back, it has become a habit of mine," said Roman Borshch, 29. "Now I have to get used to being a free person again."
Video posted by the Russian Defence Ministry showed smiling servicemen on a bus, some calling their families.
"We'll soon be home. How are the children? How is our boy?" said one man.
"I am overwhelmed by emotion," said another. "I still can't quite believe that this has happened, that I am back home, that the ministry made such efforts, that we are remembered and valued."
Zelenskiy thanked United Arab Emirates authorities and other partners for facilitating the swap. The United Arab Emirates acknowledged it helped arrange the exchange.
"The return of our people from Russian captivity is always very good news for each of us. And today is one of such days: our team managed to bring 189 Ukrainians home," Zelenskiy said on Telegram.
There was no immediate explanation for why more Ukrainians than Russians were listed as released; the freed Ukrainians included civilians who had been in Russian captivity.
Zelenskiy said the returning Ukrainians included soldiers, sergeants and officers from frontline areas and two civilians who had been captured in Mariupol.
BESIEGED STEEL MILL
Denys Prokopenko, commander of the 12th Special Forces "Azov" Brigade that defended the Azovstal mill, said 11 of his men were among those returning. Prokopenko was brought home in an earlier swap.
The Ukrainian body overseeing prisoner swaps said it was the 59th exchange between the two sides since Russia's February 2022 invasion of its smaller neighbour. The swap brought to 3,956 the number of Ukrainian detainees brought home.
It said those brought home this year included Ukrainian nationals serving what it described as "so-called sentences" imposed by Russian courts for various offences.
In the last swap in October, also carried out with assistance from the United Arab Emirates, Russia and Ukraine each brought home 95 detainees.
RT/Reuters
