Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday renewed his plea for talks with his Russian counterpart, taking to US television to say negotiations were the only way to “end this war.”

He stressed that he and President Vladimir Putin were the only principles able to thrash out a deal to stop the fighting, now in its fourth week.

But he signaled he would lay down red lines against ceding Ukrainian territory, including two pro-Moscow breakaway regions.

“I’m ready for negotiations with him,” Zelensky told CNN show “Fareed Zakaria GPS.”

“I think without negotiations we cannot end this war,” the Ukrainian leader said through a translator.

The reiteration of Zelensky’s call for peace talks came as he and other Ukrainians accused Russia of committing war crimes after authorities said the invading forces had bombed a school sheltering some 400 people in the besieged city of Mariupol.

“Russian forces have come to exterminate us, to kill us,” said Zelensky.

The leader, who has emerged as a national hero for his very public stance against Putin and his forces, has spoken of Ukrainians’ fierce resistance to the invasion and told Russia that several thousand of its soldiers have died in battle so far.

“If there is just one percent chance for us to stop this war, I think that we need to take this chance… to have the possibility of negotiating, the possibility of talking to Putin,” he said.

“Dialogue is the only way out,” and “I think it’s just the two of us, me and Putin, who can make an agreement on this,” Zelensky said.

“If these attempts fail, that would mean that this is a third world war.” Zelensky repeatedly has warned of the potential for the Russia-Ukraine conflict to mushroom into an all-out global war.

Last month, in a move seen as precipitating the conflict, Putin recognized two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine, Donetsk and Lugansk, as independent entities, and debate has simmered about whether Zelensky might concede the regions as a way to bring the war to a close.

But on Sunday Zelensky stood defiant: “You cannot just demand from Ukraine to recognize some territories as independent republics,” he told CNN.

“These compromises are simply wrong,” he added. “We have to come up with a model where Ukraine will not lose its sovereignty, it’s territorial integrity.”

The crisis in Ukraine, in which Putin has sought to eradicate pro-Western leanings in the ex-Soviet state, has already triggered the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.

Source:  AFP

China says it does not want to get caught up in the diplomatic and economic blowback Russia is facing from Western nations over its invasion of Ukraine.

State media said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi expressed his government’s wishes during a lengthy phone conversation Monday with Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares.

According to a transcript of the phone call published Monday by the Chinese foreign ministry, Wang told Albares that Beijing is “not a party to the crisis” and does not want to be “affected” by the mounting economic sanctions imposed on Moscow over the nearly 3-week-old invasion.

The conversation took place as U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and officials from the National Security Council and State Department met in Rome with China’s top foreign policy adviser, Yang Jiechi. The Biden administration has warned that Beijing would face severe “consequences” if it helps Moscow avoid sanctions.

Media reports emerged Sunday that Moscow has requested military and economic assistance from China for its war in Ukraine.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian Tuesday repeated an accusation leveled by Beijing that the United States is spreading “disinformation” over reports that China has responded positively to Moscow’s request.

Zhao calls the reports “not only unprofessional, but also immoral and irresponsible.”

He told reporters China’s position is “completely objective, impartial and constructive.”

State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters Monday that the United States is watching very closely the extent to which China, or any other country, provides any form of support to Russia.

“We have communicated very clearly to Beijing that we won’t stand by, we will not allow any country to compensate Russia for its losses,” he said.

CNN reported late Monday that the United States told European and Asian allies in a diplomatic cable that China had indicated a willingness to help Russia in the war against Ukraine. CNN said the cable did not state definitively that assistance had been provided and that it warned that China would likely deny any such offer.

Chinese arms sales to Russia would have “a devastating impact on the U.S.-China relationship, because it would clearly align the Chinese with the Russians, against the United States, Europe in a war,” Robert Ross, a political science professor at Boston College, told VOA.

China is in a unique position because of its partnership agreement with Russia, according to Stephen Roach, a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. He told VOA that China has “considerably greater” leverage over Russia than even Western countries that have implemented “unprecedented sanctions” on Russia.

 “China has something that the West does not have, and that is the partnership,” with Russia, he said.

Source: VOA

Israel’s premier stepped into the role of mediator Saturday as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine intensified, holding a three-hour meeting at the Kremlin with Vladimir Putin before calling Ukraine’s president and flying to Berlin.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s sit-down with Putin was the first by foreign leader since the day Russian forces invaded Ukraine last week, and came after Kyiv had asked Israel to launch a dialogue with Moscow.

Bennett has so far walked a very cautious line on the Ukraine crisis, seeking to preserve delicate security cooperation with Russia, which has a large military presence in Israel’s northern neighbour, Syria.

Bennett has not joined Western leaders — notably key ally the United States — in forcefully condemning the invasion, instead stressing Israel’s strong relations with both Russia and Ukraine.

Ahead of his Moscow trip, Bennett had spoken by telephone repeatedly with both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Bennett’s office said he left Israel for Moscow early Saturday, itself an extraordinary move for a religious Jew who does not conduct state business on the Jewish Shabbath, except in extraordinary circumstances.

Bennett and Putin met for three hours, in a visit that was coordinated with the US, Germany and France, an Israeli official said.

Bennett’s delegation included his housing minister, fluent Russian speaker Zeev Elkin, who was born in Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union.

The Kremlin said “different aspects of the situation in Ukraine” were discussed during “the short working visit”.

After the Putin meeting, Bennett called Zelensky — who is Jewish, has family in Israel and has visited the country many times.

Bennett then headed to Germany for talks with Chancellor Olaf Scholz scheduled for late Saturday.

A statement from the French presidency said Emmanuel Macron also spoke to Bennett before he left for Moscow on Saturday, as part of joint efforts to “obtain a ceasefire in Ukraine”.

Iran

While the Bennett-Putin talks were primarily focused on the fighting in Ukraine, the meeting also “touched upon the progress of the (Iran) nuclear talks in Vienna,” the Israeli official said.

Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency said earlier Saturday after talks in Tehran that they agreed on an approach to resolve issues crucial in efforts to revive the country’s 2015 nuclear deal.

Bennett is a staunch opponent of global efforts to revive the agreement which gave Iran relief from sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme.

The premier has argued that Tehran will use the revenue boost from the lifting of sanctions to buy weapons that can harm Israel, while still pursuing a nuclear weapons capability, an ambition Iran denies.

Russia, which has itself been slapped with Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, said Saturday that it would seek guarantees from Washington before backing any revived agreement, complicating efforts for a rapid deal.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia had requested that the US give it written guarantees that Ukraine-related sanctions “will not in any way harm our rights to free, fully-fledged trade and economic and investment cooperation, military-technical cooperation with Iran”.

There was no immediate comment on any link between the new Russian position and Bennett’s visit.

The meeting with Bennett was the first the Russian leader had scheduled since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine.

Putin received Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan at the Kremlin on the day the invasion began, in a visit that was long scheduled but widely considered ill-timed.

On Monday, Khan defended the trip — the first by a Pakistani leader to Russia in more than two decades — saying it would prove beneficial in the future.

Source: AFP