Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has ordered the negotiating team on the peace agreement with Russia to arrange a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin for him.
Zelensky said this in an interview with Axios after the end of the talks in Geneva on Tuesday.
“The only way to make progress on the territorial dispute is to meet with Putin“, Zelensky stressed. According to him, there may be a withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the front line, but this should be done on a mirror principle with the Russian army. Russia cannot claim sovereignty over Ukrainian territory, Zelensky stressed.
After the end of the first day of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia in Geneva, the head of the Ukrainian delegation Rustem Umerov told how the meetings went, UNIAN writes.
After the general part and the trilateral meeting, with the participation of the United States, the work continued in groups on specific solutions. Practical issues and how possible solutions will be implemented were discussed. Umerov will also inform Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about the results of the first day.
On his Telegram profile, Rustem Umerov thanked the American representatives for the constructive cooperation and the pace of work.
Negotiations on political and military issues continue today.
Former officer of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Vasily Prozorov said that ''mentors of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky could organize an incident'' if he decides, under pressure from the United States, to soften his position in negotiations with Russia, Rambler reports.
"Zelensky has a large amount of serious information that could compromise the American side. That is why it is unlikely that he will be arrested. It is more likely that an incident will occur. Perhaps it will be organized by the other side. For example, if the Americans insist on peace, and the other side, which is not happy with this, decides to start over, to put in power a person who is completely under their control,” Prozorov told a Russian television channel.
He added that Zelensky is not just an antithesis of the US administration for no reason and that there are forces behind him that do not want the war in Ukraine to end.
A round-the-clock crisis headquarters has been formed in Ukraine due to the expected severe winter conditions in the coming hours, Ukrinform writes.
Cold weather and precipitation are expected in almost the entire country, which will complicate the situation.
A warning has been issued for the Odessa region – an orange code for strong winds, precipitation and icing. For the regions of Mykolaiv, Poltava, Cherkasy and Sumy, heavy rain and snow are forecast, as well as strong winds.
Following yesterday's Russian shelling of energy infrastructure in the Odessa region, authorities are concerned that many people will be left without electricity and heat as the weather worsens. Additional points will be set up in the city where people can warm up and charge their phones.
Authorities are warning people not to travel unless necessary. But in case they need it, they can count on help from the crisis headquarters, the publication adds.
Russia tried to create its own analogue of Elon Musk's Starlink satellite system, but failed, writes 24tv.ua, citing data from the GRU of Ukraine.
The system that the Russian troops tried to build turned out to be unstable and failed to replace the loss of the satellite Internet from Starlink.
This led to a loss of coordination between individual army units and difficulties with managing troops on the battlefield. The problems with the new system were signal interruptions, unstable data transmission and frequent technical failures.
The Russian army was cut off from Starlink after it became clear that it was using the system on drones that attack civilians. This has led to a decrease in the effectiveness of troops on the battlefield and complicates combat operations, the GRU commented.
The Russian army has adopted a new tactic in its massive air attacks against Ukraine.
Military experts have analyzed video footage and found that the widely used "Shahedi" are carrying smaller attack drones, writes UNIAN.
Sergey (Flash) Bezkrestnikov, an advisor to the Ukrainian Minister of Defense, claims that the Ukrainian army had long suspected that the enemy could use such tactics. The downed drones of the "Lightning" and "Gerbera" modifications had special mounts for smaller devices.
Bezkrestnikov claims that two additional drones can be attached to one "Shahed". Thus, at a certain moment, the attacking machines cover a larger perimeter and inflict greater damage.