Putin Proposes Direct Talks With Ukraine Over War
Russian strongman, Vladimir Viktor Putin, today proposed direct talks with Kiev over the resolution of their more than two -year old conflict.
The move has already been described as positive by the President of Ukraine Wladimyr Zelensky,the first by the Ukrainian leader.
Putin’s proposal of unconditional talks at a neutral venue came against the backdrop of the threat of further sanctions by the West, especially the European Union, should Moscow refuse the offer of a month- long ceasefire in the conflict that has killed and wounded hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians on both sides.
The proposal is a tacit rejection of the proposal by Ukraine and its Westerner backers, though it is still some distance away from Russia ‘ s initial hard-line demands for ceasefire talks.
It is also a climb down by Ukraine which had refused to negotiate directly with Moscow.
America , which had been at the head of the global search for an end to the grinding conflict,via its Presidency, had yet to react to the Russian proposal at press time.
However, if the Russian proposal , set to begin by May 15, holds as intended, it would be the only first sign of a definite effort to end the war and its many grinding battles.
The war began after Russia, angered by the pro- West and pro-NATO inclination of the Zelensky presidency and the acculturation of Russia- speaking parts of Ukraine, invaded its neighbour, in what it termed a special military operation.
But its expectation of an early harvest of victory was not realized as Ukraine, backed by America and the entire West, provided advanced weapons, equipment, training, actionable intelligence and military experts and humanitarian aid and cash, mounted a stiff resistance.
More than two years after the invasion, Russia has taken an estimated 20 per cent of Ukrainian territory, but failed to capture either Kiev or Kherson, the major cities, though both have begun subjected to almost daily pounding by Russian Air Force jets, drones and artillery fire.
Both countries sprang from the defunct Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR, and though both have modern militaries, Russia is thought to have great advantage in terms of population, size( with 11 different times zones spread across several different natural regions, it is the biggest country on Earth in terms of geographic space ), material resources and the dreaded nuclear weapon of which it holds the single largest stock, country by country,in the world.
The West has delivered more than $800billion worth of military and other firms of support for Ukraine since the invasion .
The West has frozen more than $300 billion of Russian assets in protest at the invasion and annexation of parts of Ukraine, which, in a still mysterious move last year, mounted a lightning military effort to capture Kursk, but has since lost much of he seized territory to Russian military resurgence
