A peace talk was held between Moscow and Kyiv in the Belarusian borders on Monday, being the first meeting since last Thursday when the war broke out. The meeting ended with both sides merely agreeing to hold a second round of negotiations “soon.”
However, the Russian leader was able to pass the message on the only conditions under which he would consider withdrawing his troops from the neighbouring country during a phone conversation with France President, Emmanuel Macron on Monday.
“Putin stressed that a settlement is possible only if Russia’s legitimate security interests are unconditionally taken into account, including the recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea, the demilitarisation and denazification of the Ukrainian State and ensuring its neutral status,” CNN quoted a Russian statement via UK medium, PA News agency after the telephone conversation between the two leaders.
The war started on Thursday when President Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine over some political reasons.
Even as the dialogue was underway on Monday, at least 11 people were killed by Russian attacks in Ukraine’s second largest city of Kharkiv.
Political observers see these conditions as too cruel and diplomatically unacceptable. Putin’s terms were deliberately designed to be rejected, giving him the opportunity to continue to ‘pound’ one Ukranian city after another, in what looks like a programmed war of attrition. At the end of the day, Ukraine may be too wearied to resist Putin’s surrender plan.
But should Putin continue to be allowed to bully and abuse the sovereignty of another nation, as it did over Crimea in 2014 and got away with it. Is the United Nations not dead or dying, like the League of Nations before it?