RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Blinken overruled America’s top general on Ukraine peace talks – NYT
Outgoing US State Secretary Antony Blinken urged Ukraine to continue its military efforts against Russia rather than pursue peace negotiations in 2022, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
In late 2022, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley advised Kiev to capitalize on its battlefield successes by seeking peace talks with Moscow. However, Blinken insisted that Ukraine should press on with its military campaign, the newspaper wrote.
“Less a peacemaker than a war strategist,” the US diplomat frequently argued against more “risk-averse Pentagon officials,” lobbying for advanced American weaponry to be sent to Ukraine, NYT wrote.
Washington has spent “approximately $100 billion” on Ukraine since the conflict escalated in February 2022, while allies and partners have contributed an additional $150 billion, Blinken said during a January appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations.
The outgoing Biden administration has expedited arms deliveries to Kiev ahead of the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, who has indicated that he might reduce military aid to Ukraine in favor of addressing domestic priorities.
The Biden administration had been covertly arming Ukraine months before the conflict intensified, Blinken admitted in a January interview with the NYT. “Starting in September and then again in December, we quietly got a lot of weapons to Ukraine to make sure that they had in hand what they needed to defend themselves – things like Stingers, Javelins that they could use,” he said.
Russia and Ukraine initially engaged in peace negotiations in early 2022 in Istanbul. Both sides provisionally agreed to a truce under which Kiev would renounce its NATO membership ambitions, adopt neutrality, and limit its military size in exchange for international security guarantees. However, Ukraine later withdrew from the talks at the urging of then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, according to David Arakhamia, a Zelensky-allied MP and chief negotiator for Kiev.
Last month, Swiss diplomat Jean-Daniel Ruch similarly accused the US and UK of derailing peace talks between Kiev and Moscow. Speaking to the French-language media outlet Anti-Thèse, Ruch claimed that Johnson acted “on duty for the Americans.”
Moscow has reiterated its willingness to resume peace negotiations, provided they are based on the Istanbul draft agreements and reflect the “new territorial realities,” including the accession of four former Ukrainian regions to Russia and recent battlefield developments.
WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Three killed in strike on central Kyiv, Ukraine says
Three people have been killed in a Russian air strike on Kyiv overnight, Ukrainian officials have said.
Residents in the city first heard two loud explosions and only then the wail of the air raid siren, around 06:00 (04:00 GMT). The missiles had already hit by the time the ballistic threat warning was issued, urging residents to head for shelter.
The main destruction occurred in the central Shevchenkivskyi district, where there is now a deep crater in the road outside a business centre.
A military factory in the neighbourhood has been targeted repeatedly by Russia, but the damage we saw was to civilian buildings. An official said a couple had been killed on the street inside their vehicle.
Officials earlier reported four people had died in the attack.
The metro station, nearby restaurants and businesses are also very badly damaged, and emergency workers are removing the burned wreckage of cars from the scene.
Already damaged in previous attacks on this area, the business centre's tall glass tower and main building are now a shell after being hit by either a second missile or very large fragment. It was empty when the missile struck.
Beside the main crater, a Ukrainian forensics expert examined fragments of missile collected into a heap of twisted grey metal on the pavement.
Andriy Kulchytskyy, the head of the Military Research Laboratory of the Kyiv Institute of Scientific Expertise, told the BBC the crater was from a direct hit with an Iskander-M ballistic missile, based on markings on the missile fragments.
"This specific site shows one impact," he explained. "There are additional strikes, and we have collected debris. Here, the missile directly hit the road."
Mr Kulchytskyy said the projectile landed before the warning sirens sounded because ballistic missiles travel so quickly that the sirens cannot react in time.
Beside the road, a cake shop has had its front blown off, covering pastries and pies in shattered glass.
A dental clinic next door has been destroyed in the blast. Inside, staff are trying to recover what's still intact among the wreckage.
One woman was removing baubles from a plastic Christmas tree that was still standing.
"It's happened before," she told the BBC, "but never as badly as this''.
Asked how she felt, she shrugged: "We got used to it. It's the third year of war."
"There were three explosions in a row, then a big fire glow in the sky - and the building shook. It was very loud," a young man called Oleksandr said while exiting a nearby block of flats.
"I woke up immediately - I even felt the wall shaking. When the third strike came, it was pretty scary."
On Saturday morning, the main road has been cordoned off - but a few hours after the strike the neighbouring streets nearby are already busy with traffic. Old ladies are selling chickens and gherkins outside the market, and there are joggers and people walking their dogs.
But a pensioner passing by told us she was terrified.
"I didn't know where to run, because you normally go to the metro for shelter - but it was on fire."
It is the second fatal attack on Kyiv this month,following a strike on the city on New Year's Day that left two people dead.
Meanwhile, in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, local authorities say 10 people were wounded in a Russian strike on Saturday. One woman is said to be in a serious condition.
These strikes are the latest in the war that began following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
They follow several Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory earlier in the week.
The latest strikes take place just days before the imminent inauguration of Donald Trump in the US, with many Ukrainians concerned by Trump's pledge to reduce US military and financial aid to the embattled country.
The president-elect had claimed during the campaign that he would end the conflict on the first day of his presidency, though he has since said that he may need six months.
In recent days, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has reiterated the country's dependence on US support as Russian air strikes and fighting on the front line continue.
RT/BBC