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, said the nearly 7-week-old war could be entering a “new stage of terror” for his embattled country after Russian troops’ withdrawal from the capital, Kyiv. He again accused Russia of war crimes.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian negotiator and presidential adviser, said in a statement that negotiations were “extremely difficult.” “But they are ongoing,” he said.
Western and Ukrainian military officials were trying to ascertain whether Russia had used or intended to use chemical weapons in a bid to subdue Mariupol. A Russia-backed separatist leader, who had earlier threatened their use, denied Tuesday that such munitions had been deployed.
After failing to
