As Russia menaces Ukraine’s east, Putin says peace talks hit ‘dead end’
KYIV, Ukraine — As Russian forces pressed ahead Tuesday in their drive to seize the strategic southern port of Mariupol and encircle Ukrainian defenders in the country’s east, Russian President Vladimir Putin defended his invasion as a noble cause.
Putin said there was “no doubt” Moscow would achieve its aims to protect Russian security and, blaming Ukraine, said talks between the two sides had reached a “dead end.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in turn, rejected the idea that Russia’s nearly 7-week-old invasion, plagued by logistical and supply problems, was going according to plan after Russian troops’ withdrawal from the capital, Kyiv.
“The Russian army has reached a level of irreparable losses higher than that of the Soviet Union in 10 years of war in Afghanistan,” he said in an evening broadcast to the Ukrainian people. “Higher than that of Russia in the two wars in Chechnya.”
Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian negotiator and presidential adviser, said in a statement that negotiations were difficult “but they are ongoing.”
After failing to capture the capital, Russia was attempting to regroup and redeploy its forces in preparation for an
