Ukraine war: Putin says Russia remains ready to negotiate about ‘acceptable outcomes’
- In an interview, Putin said the absence of negotiations to end the Ukraine war isn’t Russia’s fault but rather that of Kyiv and its Western allies
- While he was open to discussing ‘acceptable outcomes’, Putin vowed that Moscow’s troops would destroy US Patriot missiles being sent to Ukraine
“We are ready to negotiate with all the participants in this process about some acceptable outcomes, but this is their business – it’s not we who refuse negotiations, but they,” Putin said in an interview with Rossiya-1 state TV for the Moscow.Kremlin.Putin show, according to Tass.
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When asked if he thinks that Russia is about to cross a dangerous line against its neighbour, Putin said he does not see it as “that dangerous” and that Russia is merely defending its interests. He vowed that Moscow’s troops would destroy US Patriot missiles being sent to Ukraine.
On Saturday, the 10-month mark of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kremlin troops killed 10 and wounded dozens more in a Grad systems attack on the southern city of Kherson, Ukrainian officials said. Images showed bodies strewn in a shopping area, along with damaged cars and buildings.
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Russia fired five missiles and conducted an air strike on Saturday, according to Ukraine’s Military Staff. Kremlin troops carried out more attacks on civilian targets, including in Kherson, where 10 people were killed and dozens injured. Russia is focusing its efforts on the offensive in the Lyman, Bakhmut and Avdiivka regions in Donetsk.
All districts in Ukraine’s capital should be getting “largely” enough power supplies on Sunday, SCM holding company spokeswoman Natalya Yemchenko said on Facebook.
“Energy workers have accomplished the absolutely impossible, effectively a miracle,” she wrote.
SCM is owned by billionaire Rinat Akhmetov and controls DTEK Energy, Ukraine’s largest private power company.
Air raid alerts that sounded across Ukraine early Sunday followed the launch of Russian fighter jets from two Belarusian airfields, said Yuri Ignat, spokesman for the air force branch of Ukraine’s armed forces. The alarms were lifted after almost two hours as the jets returned to base.
At least one MiG-31K, which can carry Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, took off from Machulishchi airbase south of Minsk, along with an Awacs Il-76 A-50U “Sergey Atayants” early warning aircraft, according to the monitoring group Belarusian Hajun. At least one other fighter jet and an escort jet launched from the Baranovichi airbase further to the southwest.
The jet activity by Russia in Belarus comes days after Putin and other senior Russian officials visited Minsk for talks with President Alexander Lukashenko.
Kremlin troops are likely to struggle to keep up the pace of their offensive operations in the Bakhmut area of Donetsk and may seek to initiate a tactical or operational pause, said US military analysts the Institute for the Study of War.
