A peace with Putin? Unthinkable for Zelensky. The Ukrainian president combines a warning with new calls for more help for his country. Moscow, meanwhile, wants to take even tougher action against war opponents. The overview.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirms that he sees no chance for peace with Russia under Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin. “He doesn’t want peace with Ukraine,” Zelensky said in an interview with the British television station Channel 4. Rather, Putin wants to continue taking over the entire country with his war, said Zelensky. At the same time, he emphasized once again that Western support for Ukraine is vital.
“You can help us more to win,” said Zelensky, referring to the Western allies who are making billions in payments to Ukraine and supplying weapons and ammunition. He also thanked for the support so far. “We could not have survived without US help,” he said, given the debates in Washington about further military aid to support Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion.
In the interview, Zelenskyj also followed the journalist’s request to invite former US President Donald Trump so that the politician, who is aiming for office again in the November election, could present his plans for ending the war. “I invite you to Ukraine, to Kiev,” said Zelensky, who had previously extended such an invitation to Trump. He wanted to hear how Trump planned to implement his announcement that he would end the war within 24 hours. Zelenskyj again rejected ceding territory to Russia in order to achieve peace.
Zelensky expects new defense packages
Zelenskyy says he expects new bilateral security agreements with allied states and further arms deliveries. “There will be new defense packages,” Zelensky said in his evening video message broadcast in Kiev. There should also be further agreements on security guarantees for Ukraine in January and February. Zelensky did not give any details. According to Zelenskyj, Ukraine was the first country to conclude such an agreement with Great Britain.
“This architecture of security guarantees is a new architecture,” said the head of state. This will effectively restore international law. He was grateful to the friends of Ukraine who understood that decisions on the battlefield must be made now and should not be postponed because otherwise it would cost lives.
Kiev’s presidential adviser: “Number of weapons should be large”
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoljak assumes that the war will continue, according to Russian President Putin’s ideas, “until he conquers the entire territory of Ukraine, until he achieves supremacy in Europe, until he conquers other post-Soviet territories.”
Because: “A person doesn’t go into a big war after destroying his reputation and his relationships if he wants to be satisfied with little. That’s nonsense,” he told “Bild”. There is only one scenario: the maximum strengthening of Ukraine with high-tech weapons. “Everyone should not talk, but invest a lot in military production, in consumer goods: long-range missiles, drones, grenades, artillery pieces. The number of weapons should be large.”
London: Russia is making no progress with attacks on the Dnipro
According to British assessments, Russian forces are still making no progress in their attacks on a Ukrainian position on the Dnipro River. The British Defense Ministry said in London that they had failed in all attempts to drive out the Ukrainians there. The Russians are most likely superior in terms of strength there.
“It is very likely that the poor training and coordination of Russian forces in this area limits their offensive capabilities,” wrote the British on X (formerly Twitter). It is an important goal of the Russians to force Ukraine to retreat on the south bank of the river.
The British assume that Russia will continue its attacks around the town of Krynky in southern Ukraine in the coming weeks “despite increasing personnel losses.” The Ukrainians hold a so-called bridgehead on the river. The ministry in London said they had repelled the attacks so far, but had problems with supplies.
Slovakia does not want Ukraine to join NATO
Slovakia rejects Ukraine joining NATO and wants to veto it if necessary. Prime Minister Robert Fico said this on public radio RTVS in Bratislava. The left-wing nationalist head of government announced that he would travel to Ukraine on Wednesday morning and meet his counterpart Denys Schmyhal in the border town of Uzhhorod. He wanted to present a new humanitarian aid package to Shmyhal, but at the same time he also wanted to bluntly explain the Slovak positions that differ from the Ukrainian wishes.
“I tell him that we will block and veto Ukrainian accession to NATO because it would be nothing other than the basis for a third world war,” Fico said. However, Slovakia is in favor of Ukraine joining the EU if the country meets the same conditions as other candidate countries. The head of government, criticized by his opponents as “pro-Russian”, once again emphasized that Slovakia would no longer supply arms from army stocks to the neighboring country attacked by Russia, but would continue to allow arms sales from Slovakian arms companies.
Russian parliamentary leader wants to expropriate assets from enemies of the state
Meanwhile, Russia’s parliamentary leader Vyacheslav Volodin wants to have war opponents and enemies of the state expropriated. A bill on this will be introduced in the State Duma this Monday, said Volodin, who is a loyal follower of Kremlin leader Putin, in Moscow. It is necessary to punish all “scoundrels who throw dirt on our country, the soldiers and officers who take part in the special military operation,” wrote the head of the Duma. Military special operations is the official Russian name for Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
The law makes it possible to confiscate “money, valuables and other property that have been used or are intended to finance criminal activity against the security of the Russian Federation.” Volodin lists eight offenses that could lead to expropriation of those affected, including demanding and supporting sanctions against Russia.
In the course of its attack on Ukraine, Russia passed several laws to punish opponents of the war, for example for discrediting the army. Now there is also the threat of confiscation of assets. Anyone who supports international organizations of which Russia is not a member or foreign authorities must therefore expect expropriation in the future. “Anyone who tries to destroy Russia, commits treason, should receive the punishment he deserves and compensate the damage caused to the country with his own wealth,” Volodin said.
