Source : NEW INDIAN EXPRESS NEWS
Putin wants Ukraine to renounce joining NATO, sharply cut its military, and withdraw its forces from the four Ukrainian regions Moscow has seized but doesn’t fully control, among other demands to curb the country’s sovereignty.
After the phone call, the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti published an article headlined, “Europe’s hopes crushed: Trump refuses to go to war with Putin.”
In the pro-Kremlin tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets, columnist Mikhail Rostovsky also portrayed the call as a blow for Ukraine’s European allies.
“Kyiv will agree to a serious, fully fledged conversation with Russia only if it has no other options left. Trump is gradually cutting off these other options for Zelenskyy,” he wrote. “And this is very, very good.”
Since Trump took office, Washington has urged Russia and Ukraine to end Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II.
European leaders remain skeptical of Putin
After Monday’s phone calls, European officials remained skeptical about Russia’s intentions.
“Putin has never changed his position,” Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said in Brussels. “Russia actually doesn’t want to end this war.”
EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said Russia’s failure to negotiate in good faith should trigger the threatened U.S. sanctions.
“We really haven’t seen, you know, the pressure on Russia from these talks,” she said.
In Kyiv, there was skepticism about Putin’s motives.
Peace “is not possible now. Only when (the Russians) run out of resources and army manpower. They are ready to fight, at least for this summer,” Svitlana Kyryliuk, 66, told The Associated Press. Putin will “stall for time, and that’s it,” she said.
Volodymyr Lysytsia, a 45-year-old serviceman visiting the capital for rehabilitation, said Putin has made the front lines in eastern Ukraine a wasteland, with “nothing there, only scorched earth, everything bombed.”
Some were unconvinced by Putin’s promise to Trump that Russia is “ready to work with” Ukraine on a “memorandum” outlining the framework for “a possible future peace treaty.”
The first direct Russia-Ukraine peace talks since the early weeks of Moscow’s 2022 invasion ended after less than two hours Friday, and while both sides agreed on a large prisoner swap, they clearly remained far apart on key conditions to end the fighting.
SOURCE :- NEW INDIAN EXPRESS
