KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday hailed his forces’ success in their surprise offensive into Russia’s territory, an advance that triggered the Kremlin to rule out entering peace talks with Kyiv.
Ukraine sent troops and tanks over the border on August 6, piercing several kilometres into Russia’s Kursk region, where they are holding onto a chunk of territory.
The biggest attack on Russian soil since World War II has rattled Moscow and taken Ukraine’s Western allies by surprise. Zelensky on Monday said the incursion was achieving Kyiv’s objectives, which officials have previously said include stretching Russian forces, creating a “buffer zone” and bringing the war “closer” to an end on “fair” terms. But Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Kyiv’s attack had pushed the prospect of peace talks further away.
“At the current stage, given this escapade, we will not talk,” he said Monday. He called entering a negotiating process “completely inappropriate” and said future talks “depend on the situation on the battlefield, including in the Kursk region.”
Moscow, intent on not letting the offensive affect its own advance in eastern Ukraine, claimed another village in the war-battered Donetsk region on Monday.
And bracing for a further assault, Ukraine ordered the evacuation of families from the key city of Pokrovsk as Moscow’s forces inched closer to the logistics hub. In Kursk, Zelensky’s troops have set up administrative offices and published previously unthinkable footage of Ukrainian soldiers patrolling Russian streets.
“We are achieving our goals. This morning we have another replenishment of the (prisoner of war) exchange fund for our country,” Zelensky said, referring to more Russian troops being taken captive.
On Sunday, he said the push into Russian territory was designed to create a “buffer zone”.
The prospect of peace talks appeared distant even before Ukraine launched its incursion into Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had demanded Ukraine cede swathes of territory if it wanted a ceasefire.
Zelensky, who has ruled out direct talks with the Kremlin, demands Russia’s full withdrawal from Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, and reparations.
Seeking to give impetus to a possible settlement, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Ukraine on Friday, officials in New Delhi and Kyiv said.
Modi recently visited Moscow, is close with Putin and has made no secret of his desire to bring about an end to the conflict. Meanwhile, Ukraine was pushing on Monday with its Kursk offensive.
A third bridge over the Seym river inside Russia was hit over the weekend, a Russian military investigator said in a video published by high-profile pro-Kremlin TV commentator Vladimir Solovyov. It has left Russia with limited supply options, according to Russian military bloggers.
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