Meeting of Russia and Ukraine on Pripyat – RBC
According to Konashenkov’s statement, “the 302nd Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine equipped with Buk M-1 air defense systems” surrendered near Kharkov, in total – 471 people. Prior to this, the Ministry of Defense announced the capture of 82 defenders of the Snake Islands in the Black Sea.
On Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that in a number of cases in Ukraine there were dead and wounded. “But our losses are many times destroyed by nationalists. Isolates among servicemen of the Ukrainian armed forces,” Konashenkov said.
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Features of the operation
“In principle, the chosen tactics in Ukraine are too slow. It takes a long time and, in my opinion, is ineffective, – wrote on Sunday the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov. “We must finish what we started and go forward without looking back. Come what may. They kill and continue to go to war. No way, unfortunately.” He proposes to start large-scale operation of the compressor in all directions and on the territory of Ukraine.
Zelensky called the problem with Russia “small, but a chance”
According to the statement of the President of Russia, the pursued special operation is “demilitarization and denatification of Ukraine”. It is not known what cases of infection were contracted before the Russian army, but it cannot be said that the offensive has stalled, according to military expert Vasily Kashin. “I see no reason to say that the Russian army got bogged down somewhere on the fourth day, acting against a country of 40 million with a 200,000-strong army, which is important at the beginning of the conflict and has a fairly powerful air defense and air force, and which has been saturated in recent years We use observations,” he said. “In terms of such large-scale changes, negligible time has passed,” the expert continues. The operation is in the early stages of mobile warfare, trade Kashin: “For example, the foreign operation Iraqi Freedom lasted three weeks. And this is an order of magnitude weaker with the enemy than the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”
“There are successes, they are quite convincing,” continues Kashin. – I managed to break into the second tourist city of his country, Kharkov, there are fights in the line. It was possible to break through to a significant branch from the south and create an encirclement of troops in Mariupol. It was possible to advance from the DPR and LPR for tens of kilometers. And it turned out to Kiev, to start fighting on its outskirts. That is, with a large population captured for tens of kilometers and is in the process of capturing the second largest city in the country and includes the kidnapping of the first person. It’s on the fourth day.”
At the same time, in his opinion, it is “absolutely certain” that there are significant losses on both sides – and there are “serious losses” on both sides, but, he generates, “there is no data on losses that are worth paying attention to yet” . “.
Negotiations on Pripyat
On February 25, the day after the start of the Russian operation, Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky announced his readiness to discuss with Russia the neutral status of his country. On the same day, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow was ready to send a Russian delegation to Minsk to negotiate with the Ukrainian one. According to the statement, he was supposed to become a representative of the Ministry of Defense, the Foreign Ministry and the presidential administration.
Then they did not take place – because of the ultimatum security of Russia, the Ukrainian side said. “We said that we are ready, we will sit down at the negotiating table and began to prepare our negotiating position, that is, the revolution, which we would be fascinated by theses in terms of revision of the revolution, a truce, and so on,” Mikhail, deputy adviser to the office of the President of Ukraine, told RBC Podolyak. But, by his definition, at some point the Russian side put forward several ultimatum security demands that were unacceptable for Kyiv, since Zelensky stressed several times that Ukraine would not accept any demands of nature and character from Russia.
Deripaska said “peace is very important” for negotiations
On February 27, Peskov said that a Russian delegation had left for Gomel on a special account with the Ukrainian side. Its composition was unexpected. The delegation was led by Assistant to the President of Russia Vladimir Medinsky, it included: Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko, Deputy Minister of Defense Alexander Fomin, the new Russian Ambassador to Belarus Boris Gryzlov, who remains the head of the Russian delegation in the Three Representative Contact Group (TCG), and the head of the State Duma Committee on RIAC Affairs Leonid Slutsky. Medical previously was not interested in holding any open talks on security, moving to the post of assistant to the president, he represents the interests of the Ministry of Culture. Slutsky in the State Duma meets in the RIAC committee, which does not include Ukraine, it belongs to the leadership of the committee on CIS affairs. For Deputy Minister Rudenko, against, interaction with the countries of the post-Soviet space is the main activity.
“Drawing up a decision on resolving issues regarding what Russia wants to get from these negotiations – neither the former minister of culture nor the alleged head of the international committee of the State Duma can be called negotiators, in general, such a composition does not look very suitable for the expected situation,” says International Crisis consultant Group Oleg Ignatov. “Perhaps the task of this team was to show readiness for negotiations, when it comes to holding a serious conversation about the conflict, the composition will change,” he does not form.
Erdogan offered to become a mediator in the negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv
First, the Ukrainian side refuted plans to sit down at the negotiating table in Gomel – due to the fact that he was faced with unacceptable sharpness on the territory of Belarus. “Four days ago, cruise missiles, planes, helicopters, and equipment came from the Belarusian territory. <...>. If there were no aggressive actions from our territory, we could speak in Minsk. <...>. Any city in the country is suitable for us, with the territory of which missiles do not fly,” Zelensky said. Podolyak told RBC that Russia continues to set “unacceptable ultimatum conditions.” Peskov also said that Gomel welcomes the Ukrainian side.
Medinsky, already received in Belarus, announced that the Russian parliamentarians would be waiting for the Ukrainian delegation until 15:00. “In case of refusal of any responsibility for the bloodshed, it will be on the Ukrainian side,” he added. Nobody arrived at the appointed time. However, after the conversation between President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Zelensky took place, the Belpresscenter reported that the Ukrainian delegation nevertheless left for a meeting in Gomel. This was also confirmed by the Russian side. “The politicians agreed that the Ukrainian delegation would meet with the Russians without preconditions at the Ukrainian-Belarusian border near the Pripyat River,” the statement said. statement of the Office of the President of Ukraine. Lukashenka, as noted in Kyiv, took upon himself the obligation that for the period of “negotiations and the return of the Ukrainian delegation, all planes, helicopters and missiles stationed on Belarusian territory have been returned to the ground.” Later, Zelensky said that he “does not really believe in the success of today’s negotiations with Russia,” but “there is a small chance, so it must be used.”
Kuleba rejected the option of capitulation of Kyiv in negotiations with Russia
Earlier, in a conversation with RBC, Podolyak said that at present there is no talk of the main contractual aspects, from the consideration of proposals for observation. “You have to understand that this does not really matter, especially in connection with the participation in the package of the first round of negotiations on where and when they take place,” he explained on the eve of the meeting in Pripyat.