Putin vows to 'thrash' Ukraine ahead of another round of peace talks

|HT|

Russia's Vladimir Putin has vowed to 'thrash' Ukraine ahead of another round of peace talks between the two countries who have been locked in the worst armed conflict in Europe (since World War II) for over a month. In an exclusive report (paywalled) Putin said Roman Abramovich - the Russian billionaire ex-owner of English Premier League club Chelsea seen as the president's unofficial envoy - 'Tell him (Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy) I wil thrash them.' The Abramovich handed Putin a note from Zelenskky outlining the terms Ukraine will consider. '... I will thrash them,' was Putin's response. Russian and Ukraine are due to sit down for another round of talks in Turkey Tuesday, with an improved humanitarian situation the 'minimum' goal. The maximum is a stable cease-fire, Ukraine foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said. "We are looking forward to the conversation of the two delegations to see if the Russians will come to these talks ready to really agree on something, or just repeat their demands...," Kuleba said.

In the latter event, 'the sides will disperse in the same way as they arrived'.

It was earlier reported Abramovich, who lost ownership of Chelsea after he was sanctioned, and Ukrainian negotiators were poisoned during talks in Kyiv.

The Wall Street Journal said the attack was possibly the work of hardliners in Moscow looking to sabotage the peace talks.

"It was not intended to kill, it was just a warning," Christo Grozev, an investigator with open-source collective Bellingcat, said in the Journal.

A face-to-face meet between Putin and Zelenskyy, who has emerged as war-time hero for Ukraine with inspiring speeches, is unlikely at this time. Putin has been single-minded in waging war - ostensibly to 'free Ukraine from oppression' and to 'de-militarise' and 'de-nazify' the former Soviet state. Last month Russia said it would continue till Ukraine's military is destroyed.

Russian forces have laid siege to Ukraine, including the port city of Mariupol, which has been bombarded since the start of this month. Mayor Vadym Boychenko has claimed that over 5,000 people, including 200 children, have died in Mariupol alone, where hospitals and theatres have been shelled. The number of casualties - civilian and military - on either side is unknown but estimates by relief agencies say the former is likely in the thousands. The United Nations has estimated four million have fled Ukraine as refugees, including over half of all Ukrainian children. Russia has played down its casualties but reports suggest hundreds, if not thousands, of soldiers have died and military equipment has been lost. Russia has also played down charges by Ukraine that it is targeting civilian and medical personnel and structures - which is against established rules of war.

Moscow has been slapped with some of the strongest sanctions ever as the West attempts to 'force' Putin to back down, but he has remained defiant so far.

US president Joe Biden seemed to reveal some of the frustration last week when he called Putin a 'butcher' during a meeting with European Union leaders in Poland, and said the Russian leader 'cannot remain in power'. The remark - apart from triggering a furious reaction from the Kremlin - has been clarified as Biden's 'moral outrage' over the war and not the position of the US government, which was accused of attempting ‘regime change’.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)