TALKS between Russia and Ukraine should be held on conditions advanced publicly by the Russian side and take into account the actual situation, speaker of Russia’s Federation Council, or upper parliament, Valentina Matviyenko, said on Sunday.
‘Talks on realistic conditions. They are well-known. We have publicly declared them. These conditions were advanced in the goals of the special military operation.
‘And, naturally, Russia will never hold talks on any other conditions because it was Ukraine who crossed the red line,’ she said in an interview with Belarus’ STV television channel.
‘If the West had wanted it, it would have pushed Kiev toward the negotiating table and have forced it to reach peace agreements,” she said. ‘The (West) had absolutely different goals and tasks. And it is obvious today.
‘As for what is going on in Ukraine, it is not Russia who is fighting. It is the collective West, NATO, who is fighting against Russia by the hands of Ukrainians.
‘That is why we had to do everything to defend our sovereignty and our security’ she stressed.
‘Even today, Russia is ready for talks, but not declarative talks geared to invent some schemes or topics to protract negotiations,’ Matviyenko noted.
‘Our clearly worded conditions should be accepted. And it will be the basis for talks to agree some nuances and so on. Our conditions are well-known. They are vitally important not only for Russia but for European stability in general.’
The war is not going well for imperialism. At least 50,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed since the start of Russia’s special operation, First Deputy Information Minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Daniil Bezsonov said on Monday.
‘Ukraine has suffered huge losses, most of its combat-ready and experienced troops have either been killed or captured,’ he told Channel One.
‘Based on my observations, the information available on the Internet and even official reports, their losses stand at over 50,000 troops killed along the entire frontline.
‘And if we count those wounded, their number is three to four times higher, exceeding roughly 100,000 or even 150,000,’ he said.
According to the DPR official, those who come to replace the killed and wounded troops are mostly members of territorial defence units whose morale is rather low. ‘They do have capable forces and as far as I know, they are trying to redeploy them from the Belarusian border to Donbass. However, it’s nothing but a PR stunt,’ Bezsonov noted.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Sunday that Western countries are reluctant to answer Russia’s questions about their mercenaries in Ukraine.
‘As (Russian Ambassador to London Andrey) Kelin said, ‘they (Western countries) are writing some provocative, boorish things. They don’t want to answer the question we ask about their activities,’ she said in an interview with the Sunday Evening with Vladimir Solovyov programme on the Rossiya-1 television channel.
This was when asked whether the United States and the United Kingdom had contacted Russia concerning their nationals who are taking part in combat operations in Ukraine.
According to Zakharova, the West is doing its utmost to continue the conflict in Ukraine as long as possible. ‘They are sparing no effort so that the conflict in Ukraine continued as long as possible.
‘We remember what US 43rd President George Bush Jr said: “Ukraine’s mission is to kill as many Russians as possible”.
‘They have endowed Ukraine and the Kiev regime with this duty. They are using (Ukraine) as an instrument and the entire logistics are centred round that – weapons supplies, sending people, anything to keep the conflict burning, as (UK Prime Minister Boris) Johnson told (French President Emmanuel) Macron today, to prevent the settlement of this situation. Otherwise, their plan will fail,’ she added.
- Several high-ranking officials of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s office are currently in Lisichansk, efforts are being taken to detain them, a spokesman for the People’s Militia of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) said on Sunday.
‘Along with lots of foreign mercenaries, there are several high-ranking President Zelensky office’s officials in Lisichansk. Measures are being taken not to let them flee the city,’ he said.
Russian Defence Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said earlier that Russian missiles hit four munitions depots in Lisichansk’s western suburb. He also said that Russian and LPR forces have blocked Lisichansk from the south.
More than 120 mercenaries from the UK, France, the US, and Poland are in Lisichanks, which is being stormed by militias of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), Vitaly Kiselev, an aide to the LPR interior minister, said on Sunday.
‘They are trying to flee Lisichansk in small groups to Solidar and Kramatorsk, while mercenaries are fleeing still further – to Pavlograd.
‘In Lisichansk, there are the Poles (a private military company), 37 Britons, 21 Frenchmen, and 64 Americans, according to preliminary reconnaissance data and reports coming from locals in Lisichansk,’ he told TASS.
According to Kiselev, around 12,000 Ukrainian troops are concentrated near Lisichansk.
Meanwhile, a Chernomorneftegaz drilling platform in the Black Sea has come under shelling by Ukrainian troops again, a spokesman for Crimea’s emergencies services said on Sunday.
‘Yes, it was a shelling attack by Ukrainian troops. No one was hurt,’ he told TASS.
The shelling attack was also reported by the Baza Telegram channel.
Previously, Chernomorneftegaz drilling platforms came under shelling by Ukrainian troops on Monday, June 20. There were 109 people on them. Three were hurt, seven are still missing and the search operation continues.
There was also an assassination attempt against a local administration official in Kakhovka – the woman was not hurt, the Kherson region police department said on Sunday.
‘A car belonging to Irina Makhneva, who is in charge of education and culture issues in the new administration, was blown up in Kakhovka. The explosive device went off earlier than planned, which saved her life,’ it wrote on its Telegram channel.
Meanwhile, according to Vladimir Leontyev, who heads Kakhovka’s military-civilian administration, the car was set on fire. ‘Her car, which was parked near the house, was set on fire yesterday evening,’ he said.
Last Friday, Dmitry Savluchenko, chief of the Kherson military-civilian administration’s family, youth and sports department, was also killed in a car blast.
- Some 250 more people have been evacuated from the Azot works in Severodonetsk by militias of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), LuganskInformCentre reported on Sunday.
‘Many people were evacuated yesterday. Some 200 civilians. Today, some 250 more people were evacuated and there will be more.
‘First, we take them to a safe place and then the LPR emergencies ministry accommodates them in Starobelsk,’ a spokesman for the LPR military command was quoted as saying.
He said there are many children among the evacuees. ‘It is horrible: they have been kept (at the Azot plant) for four months, seeing no daylight. There are many small children, of five, three years of age,’ he noted.
LPR’s Ambassador to Russia, Rodion Miroshnik, said earlier that the evacuees from the Azot plant say there might be hundreds more civilians there.
Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said earlier that Russian and LPR forces are mopping up the Azot chemical works in Severodonetsk and continue to evacuate civilians.
Meanwhile, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that Russia is leaving the Council of Europe and will not obey newly-pronounced verdicts by the European Court of Human Rights, including a future decision on a lawsuit Ukrainian big business tycoon Rinat Akhmetov had filed in the capacity of the Azovstal metal plant’s owner.
‘We have already pulled out of the corresponding documents. The answer is obvious,’ Peskov told the media.
Earlier on Monday, the press service of the System Capital Management group of companies, in which Akhmetov is a stakeholder, said that the Ukrainian oligarch had filed a lawsuit against Russia to demand compensation for what was described as ‘trampling of his property rights’.
The SCM said that ‘as the owner of Azovstal and many other industrial facilities that have been targeted by the invading Russian armed forces, Mr Akhmetov seeks to ensure that Russia is held accountable.’
On March 15, Russia began the process of withdrawing from the Council of Europe. On June 11, laws signed by President Vladimir Putin were published on the non-execution in Russia of any resolutions the ECHR adopted after March 15, 2022 – from the moment Russia filed its statement it was leaving the Council of Europe.
The battle of Mariupol began on February 25. The remnants of the Ukrainian armed group for a long time remained holed up on the territory of the Azovstal plant.
On May 20, Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that the Russian military had completely liberated the territory of the industrial
facility.