News Desk :
Russian President Vladimir Putin has told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a phone call that Russia will only halt its military operation if Ukraine stops fighting and Moscow’s demands are met, the Kremlin says.
Russia insists its invasion of Ukraine by land, air and sea is a special military operation, which Putin claims, without any evidence, is needed to “denazify” the country, reports BBC.
The Russian leader reiterated that the assault is going according to plan and on schedule.
He has made similar comments in recent days, amid verdicts from Western defence analysts that the Russian military campaign was going less well than expected.
According to the Kremlin statement, Putin says he hopes Ukrainian negotiators will take a more constructive approach.
Erdogan’s office said the Turkish leader had appealed for an urgent general ceasefire.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says his campaign in Ukraine is going according to plan and would not end until Kyiv stopped fighting, reports Reuters.
Putin made the comments in a phone call with Turkish President Tayyep Erdogan, who appealed for a ceasefire in the conflict that the United Nations says has created the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two.
The statement came on Sunday following a failure in evaluating the heavily bombarded city of Mariupol for the second day in a row, reports Reuters.
Russian television said Putin also held talks on Sunday with President Emmanuel Macron, who has stayed in regular contact but, as with other international efforts, has yet to convince Moscow to call off a campaign now on the 11th day.
Authorities in Mariupol had said on Sunday they would make a second attempt to evacuate some of the 400,000 residents after the Ukrainian coastal city endured days of shelling that has trapped people without heat, power and water.
But the ceasefire plan collapsed, as it had on Saturday, with each side blaming the other for the failure.
Putin told Erdogan he was ready for dialogue with Ukraine and foreign partners but any attempt to draw out negotiation would
fail, a Kremlin statement said. Turkey said Erdogan had called for a ceasefire to ease humanitarian concerns.
Kyiv renewed its appeal to the West to toughen sanctions beyond existing efforts that have hammered Russia’s economy. It also requested more weapons, including a plea for Russian-made planes, to help it repel Russian forces.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Washington was “very, very actively” considering how it could backfill aircraft for Poland, if Warsaw decided to supply its warplanes to Ukraine, speaking on a trip to neighbouring Moldova.
Moscow calls the campaign it launched on Feb. 24 a “special military operation”, saying it has no plans to occupy Ukraine, which was once part of the Soviet Union under Moscow’s sway but which has now turned West seeking membership of NATO and the European Union.
