LVIV – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday Ukraine had no option but to negotiate with Russia to end fighting but that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin might not personally hold talks.
Zelenskiy was speaking after accusing Russian troops of carrying out extra-judicial killings in the town of Bucha west of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, Reuters reported.
Moscow accused the West of staging the deaths to discredit its troops, denied that they had carried out any atrocities and threatened to expel more Western diplomats.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the reports of civilian killings in Bucha were “fakes” aimed at discrediting Russia. Moscow said it would present “empirical evidence” to a meeting of the United Nations Security Council Tuesday proving its forces were not involved.
“All of us, including myself, will perceive even the possibility of negotiations as a challenge,” Zelenskiy said in an interview with Ukrainian journalists broadcast on national television.
“The challenge is internal, first of all, one’s own, human challenge. Then, when you pull yourself together, and you have to do it, I think that we have no other choice.”
He said the events in Bucha were unforgivable but Ukraine and Russia should take the difficult option of pursuing talks, and signalled that Moscow should recognise what its troops were alleged to have done.
The Russian news agency Interfax cited a deputy Russian foreign minister as saying talks were continuing via video link.
Asked whether he and Putin would hold direct talks, Zelenskiy said it was possible this would not happen but gave no details.
Russia launched what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine on Feb. 24, saying it aimed at demilitarising its neighbour, Ukraine and the West say the invasion was illegal and unjustified.
Russian forces pulled back from the capital Kyiv in the face of stiff Ukrainian resistance mounted with the help of Western anti-tank weaponry.
Moscow painted the withdrawal as a goodwill gesture at peace talks, which last convened on Friday. Negotiators had been due to convene on Monday, but neither side has given an update on the talks.
Both Germany and the Biden administration said new sanctions against Moscow were due to be announced in the coming days.
France and Germany said they would expel Russian diplomats and Medvedev said Moscow would respond in kind and “slam shut the door on Western embassies”.
German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said the European Union must discuss banning Russian gas, though other officials urged caution around measures that could touch off a European energy crisis.
Russia supplies about a third of Europe’s gas, and Putin has tried to use energy as a lever to fight back against Western sanctions. So far, however, Moscow has kept its gas flowing into Europe, despite uncertainty over Putin’s demands for payments in roubles. read more
In the latest effort to pile pressure on Moscow, the United States stopped the Russian government from paying holders of its sovereign debt more than $600 million from reserves held at US banks.
