Vladimir Putin has “lost his chance” to end the war by refusing to entertain a new round of peace talks, the Ukrainian foreign minister said. Andrii Sybiha spoke ahead of the gathering in London on Sunday evening, during which the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met the leaders of the UK, Germany and France to discuss further support for Ukraine.
Sybiha said: “By refusing President Zelensky’s offer for direct peace talks, Putin lost his chance to get out of his failed war. “Things will only get worse for Russia. Battlefield losses will continue to grow. Failures will get more humiliating.” He goes on to say that Putin’s failures “will get more humiliating” as the economy will continue to “plunge deeper into recession”, with more jobs lost, growing taxes and hitting inflation.
He added: “There are already no safe places in Russia that can be exempt from Ukraine’s long-range sanctions. But their intensity will continue to grow.
“All of this because the fanatic in the Kremlin wants to keep in power at any cost and is ready to sacrifice his country’s future and kill millions of people for his insane delusions.
“All of this because he doesn’t want to admit a simple truth: he will never achieve his goals on the battlefield and he better abandon his delusional hopes of Ukraine collapsing soon, support from its partners waning, or pressure on Russia easing.”
His attack came after the Russian president rejected a proposed face-to-face meeting with Zelensky made via an open letter from the Ukrainian leader.
In the letter, Zelensky said: “When you came to power in Russia more than 26 years ago, many people in Ukraine viewed you positively. That is how it was. But that is now in the past.
“Now, the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians view it positively that our long-range drones paid a visit to the opening of your forum in St. Petersburg, covering a distance of more than 1,000 kilometers. As you know very well, that distance is not the limit of our capabilities.
“For 26 years, your time in power has completely changed the agenda of relations between Ukraine and Russia. From discussions about trade and other civilian matters, our nations have moved to talking almost exclusively about strikes and losses.
“You have spent nearly half of your 26 years in power in Russia waging war against Ukraine.”
He added: “But you, too, will have to fight much harder for your own existence — not Russia’s, but your own. And this is not a threat from me or from Ukraine. It is a fact of Russian history that you know well: when Russia grows tired, change comes.
“We can work toward that fatigue.
“Eternal memory to all those whose lives were taken by this war.”
