Russia refuses to withdraw from Ukraine as a condition for talks

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Russia said Friday that Western demands that it should withdraw completely from Ukraine as part of any future talks to end the war effectively rule out any such negotiations, as Russian strikes continue and a Ukrainian official adjusts for his country’s losses in the battle. up to 13,000 soldiers.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated that Russian President Vladimir Putin remains open to talks, but that the West’s demand that Moscow first withdraw its forces from Ukraine is unacceptable.

Peskov’s remarks came as Putin spoke on the phone Friday morning with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Schultz’s office said he made it clear to Putin “that there must be a diplomatic solution as soon as possible, including the withdrawal of Russian forces.”

On Thursday, US President Joe Biden also signaled his willingness to hold talks With Putin if he shows he seriously wants to end the invasion and withdraw from Ukraine.

A statement issued by the Kremlin after the phone call with Schulz said Putin again blamed the West for encouraging Ukraine to prolong the war by supplying it with weapons.

Putin also said that recent Russian strikes on Ukraine’s infrastructure were “forced and inevitable” after Ukraine bombed a key bridge to Crimea – which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014 – and energy facilities.

Russian forces have bombed Ukraine’s critical infrastructure since October, leaving millions without power amid cold winter weather. Scholz’s office said that in a phone conversation with Putin he “particularly condemned Russian air strikes on civilian infrastructure” in Ukraine, and said Germany was committed to continuing to help Ukraine defend itself.

On Friday, the Ukrainian General Staff said that the Russian forces continued missile attacks on infrastructure and air strikes against the positions of the Ukrainian forces along the line of contact, adding that Moscow’s military campaign focused on dozens of cities including Bakhmut and Avdiivka, which are two major Russian targets in the besieged east. .

A senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, citing military commanders, said that since the Russian invasion on February 24, between 10,000 and 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in action. It was a rare commentary on Ukraine’s military losses and far below Western leaders’ estimates.

“We have official numbers from the General Staff, we have official numbers from the High Command, and it’s between 10,000 and 12,500-13,000 dead,” Chancellor Mykhailo Podolak said late Thursday on Channel 24 TV. He also said that the civilian casualties were “significant”.

The Ukrainian military has not confirmed such figures and this was a rare case of a Ukrainian official providing such a tally. The last time dates back to late August, when the commander of the armed forces said that nearly 9,000 military personnel had been killed. And in June, Podolak said that up to 200 soldiers were dying every day in some of the fiercest fighting and bloodshed so far in the war.

Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Union’s executive commission, said on Wednesday that 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed, before her office corrected her comments, calling them inaccurate, saying the figure referred to dead and wounded.

On Friday, Zelensky’s office reported that at least three civilians were killed and 16 wounded in Ukraine in the past 24 hours. Kirilo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the office, said via Telegram that Russian forces attacked nine regions in the southeast of the country with heavy artillery, missiles and aircraft.

Ukrainians are bracing for frigid winter temperatures as the recent Russian campaign has damaged infrastructure including power plants and electrical transformers, leaving many without heat, water and electricity.

Ukraine has faced an onslaught of Russian artillery fire and drone attacks since early October. The bombing has been particularly intense in Kherson since Russian forces withdrew and the Ukrainian army recaptured the southern city nearly three weeks ago.

The governor of Kherson province said three were killed and seven wounded in Thursday’s shelling. The Russians bombed residential areas of the city, part of which remained without electricity after the Russian strikes on Thursday.

In the eastern Donetsk region, Ukrainian governor Pavlo Kirilenko said Russian shelling had intensified dramatically. The Russian army seeks to surround the main town of Bakhmut by capturing several surrounding villages and cutting off an important road.

There were also reports of Russian strikes targeting towns across the Dnieper River from the Russian-controlled Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. And in the northeastern province of Kharkiv, officials said Russian shelling wounded two women.

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