With Russian attacks in Donbass, and other parts of Ukraine raging, it is uncertain whether Putin will soon make any spectacular gains on the ground, MoscowMoscow is attempting to refute the threats it had made in previous days to use even nuclear weapons against countries that help Kiev, and called on the West to stop military aid to Zelensky in order to facilitate the search for a peaceful solution, implicitly blaming the Western attitude for the collapse of the talks.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday night directly accused the Ukrainian side of constantly changing its positions and of being responsible for the deadlock in the peace negotiations with its inconsistency.
"If they were honest negotiators, the two sides could have already achieved significant results," Lavrov claimed, with Volodymyr Zelensky signalling that the Russian army's atrocities are preventing any talk of peace, as there is great anger among the Ukrainian people over what the Russians are committing against them. Zelensky even revealed that a mass grave was also found in the Kiev region with 900 dead.
It is still unknown why, but Lavrov, who gave several interviews on Friday, said among other things that Moscow is not threatening anyone with nuclear war, even claiming that it is the West that insists on referring to this possibility. Just three 24 hours earlier, however, Vladimir Putin himself had upped the ante on Russian threats to the West, implicitly referring to the possible use of nuclear weapons if Russia's security is threatened by Western involvement in the war in Ukraine. He clarified that Moscow does not consider that
However, the United States also does not consider that there is a real threat of Russia using nuclear weapons, according to a Pentagon official.
Despite the "lifting" of the nuclear threat, at least at this juncture of developments, Lavrov asserted that the war will end once Russia achieves its objectives, thus foreshadowing a long-lasting war, while the US is sending Ukraine new mammoth military aid worth $20 billion and Germany is preparing to send heavy weapons in defiance of Russian threats. Lavrov insisted on the demand that the United States and NATO stop arming Ukraine if they really want to find a peace solution, he said.
Slow Russian advance in Donbass says West
[BR][BR]Meanwhile, US and British intelligence and assessments of the Russian operation on Ukraine's eastern front indicate that the troop advance is slow and is registering appalling casualties from Ukrainian resistance. Analysts in Washington and London speak of a heavy price in manpower and equipment at a time when territorial gains are limited.
As the British Ministry of Defence says, "due to strong Ukrainian resistance, Russian territorial gains have been limited, and have been achieved at considerable cost to Russian forces."
But the US Pentagon also assesses that the Russian offensive is progressing "slowly and unevenly" as it meets stiff resistance from the Ukrainians.
It even points out that the Russians have not been able to join their forces moving north around the Kharkiv area with those deployed in the southeast and prominent in the attack on Mariupol to seize the "line" that could separate Donbass from the rest of the country.
The Pentagon notes that Russian forces "are not advancing very quickly. A few kilometers a day is the maximum they can do because they are being pushed back."
Source: Proto Thema
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