Kyiv Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced a new offensive. According to their own statements, the Ukrainian army has already established a bridgehead at one point in the east of the country in order to be able to advance further. In view of the current military situation, but also because of the large number of war crimes that they accuse the Russian military of, Zelenski’s advisers believe that negotiations are pointless.
In Moscow, meanwhile, one of the country’s best-known pop singers criticized the Russian war of aggression surprisingly harshly. Pop diva Alla Pugacheva, who recently returned to Russia from Israel, has asked the Justice Department to label her a “foreign agent” because she is pro-peace. The 208th day of the war in Ukraine begins on Monday.
President Selenski speaks of an imminent new offensive
Zelensky announced new attacks on Russian-held territory in Ukraine. “Perhaps it seems to some of you that after a series of victories there has been silence, but it is not silence,” Zelensky said in his daily video address on Sunday. Rather, it is the preparation for the next offensive, the aim of which is the recapture of Mariupol, Melitopol and Cherson.
According to Zelensky, Ukraine will not only focus on the areas it controlled before the Russian attack in February. The 44-year-old announced that the territories of the Moscow-backed separatists in the east of the country and cities in Crimea, which had been annexed by Russia since 2014, would also be recaptured. “Because all of Ukraine must be free.”
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After invading Ukraine on February 24, Russia has seized large areas in the south and east of the country. Moscow currently still occupies around 125,000 square kilometers – that’s about a fifth of Ukraine’s territory including the Crimean peninsula.
Kyiv rejects negotiations as pointless
Kyiv has ruled out negotiations and a meeting between Russian Presidents Vladimir Putin and Zelensky at this time. “In short, the negotiation process itself and a face-to-face meeting between the presidents doesn’t make sense right now,” external adviser to the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Mykhailo Podoliak, said on Sunday, according to Ukrainian media.
Podoljak gave three reasons why talks are pointless at this stage:
- First, Russia will try to record and legitimize land gains.
- Second, maintaining the status quo is only serving Russia as a breathing space so that it can then continue the attacks on the new line.
- And third, Russia must be held accountable for crimes committed on Ukrainian territory.
Negotiations are therefore only possible once the Russian troops have withdrawn from Ukrainian territory. Then the level of reparation payments and the handing over of war criminals could be negotiated, Podoljak said. Russia and Ukraine had negotiated a peace settlement shortly after the Russian invasion, but had not come to a final agreement.
Beachhead for a possible continuation of the offensive
Kyiv draws its self-confidence from its own recent offensive in the north of the country. Most of the Kharkiv region was liberated. The Russian troops set up the new front on the east bank of the Oskil River, but this line also seems to be shaky. According to their own statements, the Ukrainian military was able to cross troop units on the river and thus form a bridgehead to the east.
“The Ukrainian forces have overcome the Oskil. Since yesterday, Ukraine has also controlled the left bank,” the press office of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said on Sunday via video on its Telegram channel. Earlier there were reports that Kyiv had secured control of the eastern part of the city of Kupyansk. The information cannot be verified independently.
In their counter-offensive at the beginning of September, the Ukrainian forces in the Kharkov region advanced as far as the Oskil. Behind, the retreating Russian troops established a new front line and repelled several attempts by Ukrainians to cross the river.
Establishing a beachhead on the east side of the Oskil would be a strategically important achievement for Ukrainian troops. This would allow them to continue their attack towards the Luhansk region. The military did not provide any information about the exact location of the river crossing.
This is how the Handelsblatt reports on the Ukraine war and the consequences:
Criticism of the war in Moscow
Popular Russian pop singer Alla Pugacheva has criticized Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Since the Justice Department has blacklisted her husband Maxim Galkin as a “foreign agent,” they are asking to be included among the foreign agents, the 73-year-old wrote on her Instagram account on Sunday.
Pugacheva has shaped rock and pop music in Russia since the 1970s. After the start of the war against Ukraine, the couple left for Israel. In contrast to Galkin, who criticized the Russian leadership, Pugacheva has so far held back with political statements. All the greater is the echo that could now follow their harsh criticism of the war.
Political scientist Abbas Galliamov, once President Putin’s speechwriter, spoke of a “strong slap in the face” for the Kremlin.
That will be important on Monday
In the eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, investigators want to gather more evidence of Russian war crimes. In Isjum, where 440 graves were recently found, the exhumation of the corpses is to continue. According to Ukrainian sources, some of the victims showed signs of torture. As of Monday, Russian citizens with a Schengen visa will no longer be able to cross the border to Poland and the Baltic States. The four states have decided to refuse entry to Russians despite valid visas for tourist stays, business trips, sporting and cultural events. The measure is intended to increase the pressure on Moscow, but is not without controversy even within the EU.
More: Don’t miss any development – Everything new in our news blog about the Ukraine war