Russia continues to attack cities – negotiations in Istanbul

new York Today the warring parties want to negotiate in Istanbul – but that doesn’t stop the Russian military from attacking Ukrainian cities. At the same time, according to their own statements, the Ukrainian armed forces are trying to fend off the Russian units in several places.

The Russian advance on the city of Sloviansk in the Donetsk region in the south-east of the country and on the small town of Barvinkove in the Kharkiv region is in the process of being stopped, according to the situation report of the Ukrainian general staff, which was published on Facebook on Tuesday night.

In the Luhansk region in the east of the country, attempts are being made to contain Russian attacks around the cities of Rubishne with 60,000, Lysychansk with 100,000 and Popasna with 20,000 inhabitants. Ukraine regularly reported fighting from the vicinity of all three cities.

At the same time, the Ukrainian side is maintaining the defense of the embattled and besieged port city of Mariupol. In the Chernihiv region in the north of the country, efforts are also being made to slow down the Russian advance.

The forces responsible for defending the capital continue to fight around Kyiv and control the situation in the towns of Motyshyn, Lisne, Kapitanivka and Dmytrivka in western Kiev.

According to Ukrainian information, Russian units have been repelled from the city of Irpin in north-western Kiev, which had been heavily fought over for a long time. This was announced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Mayor Oleksandr Markushin in two separate video messages on Telegram on Monday. However, Markushin asked the residents not to return to the city just yet, as it was not yet safe there.

Wagner group dispatched to eastern Ukraine

According to British secret services, the private Russian security company “Wagner Group” has been relocated to eastern Ukraine. They are expected to use more than 1,000 mercenaries, including senior leaders of the organization, according to an update from the UK Ministry of Defense, citing intelligence information, released late Monday night.

Due to heavy casualties and the largely stalled invasion of Ukraine, Russia was most likely forced to dedicate Wagner personnel to Ukraine at the expense of operations in Africa and Syria.

Situation tense despite Ukrainian successes, says Zelensky

Regardless of some military successes, Zelenski continues to assess the situation in his country as tense. He said so in his nightly video address. He again called for tougher sanctions against Russia.

Regarding an embargo on Russian oil supplies being discussed in Europe, he said that there are now many indications that such tightening of sanctions against Russia will only take place if Moscow uses chemical weapons.

“There are no words for that,” he said. “Think how far it’s come. Waiting for chemical weapons,” he said, asking whether everything that Russia has done so far deserves such an embargo. He did not give any details as to where these clues came from.

Internet failure due to cyber attack

According to company and government representatives, there has been a serious cyber attack on the state-owned Ukrainian telecommunications group Ukrtelecom. A Ukrtelecom spokesman said the hacker attack was repelled and access to the Internet is gradually being restored. The observatory NetBlocks had previously reported that network connections across the country had collapsed.

Russia and Ukraine hold talks in Istanbul on Tuesday

Russia and Ukraine are starting a new round of negotiations in Istanbul today. The delegations from Russia and Ukraine will meet at around 9:30 a.m. Central European Time on Tuesday morning at the President’s Dolmabahce office in Istanbul, the Turkish Presidential Office said.

Before the talks begin, the Turkish side wants to meet with the delegations, said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He again stressed that he hoped for an early ceasefire. Negotiators from Ukraine and Russia have already met three times in the Belarusian border area. After that, the talks were held in video conferences.

More than four weeks into the Russian war of aggression, negotiations between the Ukrainian and Russian delegations are proving extremely difficult. For example, Kyiv wants Russian troops to withdraw and security guarantees.

Moscow is demanding that Ukraine renounce NATO and recognize the breakaway eastern Ukrainian separatist areas as separate states and the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, annexed in 2014, as part of Russia. Ankara maintains good relations with Moscow and Kyiv and sees itself as a mediator.

Meanwhile, in an interview with Russian journalists, Ukrainian President Zelensky called for Russian troops to be withdrawn from Ukrainian territory. Only then can there be security guarantees for Ukraine, which in turn are the basis for the NATO renunciation demanded by Ukraine. Russia’s Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev dismissed reports of an allegedly planned replacement of the Ukrainian leadership as fake news.

Kremlin on refused ruble payments for gas: Don’t be “benefactors”

After the EU largely refused to pay for gas supplies in rubles, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has announced possible new steps by Russia. “No pay – no gas,” said Peskow, according to the state agency TASS on Monday evening in an interview with the American television chain PBS. Moscow wants to wait for the EU’s response and then determine the next steps. “But we definitely don’t intend to present ourselves as benefactors and deliver free gas to Western Europe,” Peskov said.

Putin’s confidant accused the West of unleashing an all-out economic war on Russia. “Unfortunately, these circumstances are extremely unfriendly,” Peskov said of the sanctions.

This has brought us to the point of “total war”. “And we in Russia feel this war in such a way that the Western European countries, the USA, Canada and Australia are waging a real war in trade, in the economy, they are confiscating our property, our cash and blocking our finances,” Peskov complained. “And we must now adapt to the new reality.”

Current reporting on the crisis:

Last week, Putin ordered that natural gas could only be delivered to “unfriendly” states like Germany if payment was made in rubles. This has already been rejected by some heads of state and government with reference to a breach of contract.

Half a million Ukrainians have returned since the war began

According to the Ukrainian border police, around 510,000 people have returned from abroad since the start of the Russian war of aggression. In the past week alone there were 110,000 people, spokesman for the Ukrainian border police, Andriy Demchenko, told the daily newspaper “Welt” on Monday. Eight out of ten travelers are men. Most come from Poland.

According to Polish border guards, around 352,000 Ukrainians have left for their home country since the beginning of the war, the authorities announced on Monday. Before the start of the war on February 24, around 44 million people lived in Ukraine. According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, around 3.9 million people have fled abroad, 2.3 million of them to neighboring Poland.

With agency material

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