Russian President, Vladimir Putin has read out conditions to stop bombing neighboring Ukraine as Moscow’s forces shelled the second city and Western nations hit with even more sanctions.
Putin gave the conditions on Monday after Moscow and Kyiv held their first talks since the outbreak of the war last Thursday, which shocked the world and provoked a massive diplomatic, economic, cultural, and sporting backlash.
Shortly before the talks broke up, agreeing merely to hold the second round of negotiations “soon”, Putin laid out his prerequisites for ending the war in a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron.
“Putin stressed that a settlement is possible only if Russia’s legitimate security interests are unconditionally taken into account, including the recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea, the demilitarisation and denazification of the Ukrainian state, and ensuring its neutral status,” the Kremlin said.
Fighting continued to rage during the dialogue, with at least 11 people killed by Russian attacks in Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv, near the Russian border.
More than 350 civilians, including 14 children, have been killed during the invasion, Ukraine says, while more than half a million people have fled the country.
Oleg Sinegubov, the governor of the region that includes Kharkiv, said the “Russian enemy is bombing residential areas of Kharkiv, where there is no critical infrastructure, where there are no positions of the armed forces”.
