UKRAINE PUTS FORWARD A TEN POINT PEACE PLAN
Ukraine put forward 'unrealistic' conditions for peace, Lavrov says.
Ukraine has put forward "unrealistic" conditions for peace, Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said. Speaking to reporters in Bali, Indonesia, Mr Lavrov said he had been in talks with the leaders of France and Germany on the conflict in Ukraine before going on to accuse Kyiv of dragging out any possible resolution. He claimed Ukraine was refusing to talk to Moscow and had put forward unrealistic conditions for peace (see President Zelenskyy's demands in previous post). The Kremlin official also said that the UN had promised to move obstacles to the export of Russian grain and fertilisers. Russia has long complained of barriers to its farm exports, even though they are not directly targeted by Western sanctions.
In spite of the problems, Mr Lavrov said Russia had already exported 10.5 million tonnes of grain, mainly wheat, of which 60% had gone to Asia and 40% to Africa. "I hope these promises will be fulfilled. At least the UN secretary general gave me his sworn assurance that this is a priority issue for him," he added. Yesterday, the Indonesian authorities said Mr Lavrov had been taken to hospital after his arrival in Bali for the G20 summit. Wayan Koster, the governor of Bali, said he had been taken in for a "check-up" at the Sanglah Hospital in the provincial capital, Denpasar, and was "immediately returned". Three other Indonesian government and medical officials also said he was being treated on the resort island.
However, the Russian foreign ministry dismissed claims that he had been in hospital as "fake news".
Zelenskyy sets out Ukraine's 10-point peace plan and rules out 'Minsk 3' deal. We are getting a bit more on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's speech at the G20 summit in Bali. During his virtual address, the Ukrainian leader presented a 10-point plan for peace with Russia. He also said there would be no "Minsk 3" deal to end the fighting in Ukraine. The Minsk agreements were a series of international agreements which sought to end the Donbas war and his statement refers to two failed ceasefire deals between Kyiv and Moscow over the status of the region.
"We will not allow Russia to wait, build up its forces, and then start a new series of terror and global destabilisation. There will be no Minsk 3, which Russia will violate immediately after the agreement," Mr Zelenskyy said.
Mr Zelenskyy's 10-point plan for peace are:
- Radiation safety and nuclear weapons;
- Food safety
- Energy security
- Release of prisoners and internees
- Implementation of the UN Charter
- Withdrawal of Russian troops and cessation of hostilities
- Justice
- Ecocide and environmental protection
- Escalation prevention
- Confirmation of the end of the war
What is quite interesting to me is how Putin would go any extra mile to have his way. According to latest updates, Putin signs decree allowing dual citizens in Russia to be drafted in army. President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree allowing Russians who have dual citizenship to serve in the country's armed forces, the Moscow Times reports. The amended decree now means those with permanent residency status in foreign countries can be conscripted into the military. Dual nationals were previously exempt from conscription. For context: In September, President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilisation in Russia as the country faced military setbacks in Ukraine and said the additional manpower was needed to win a war not only against Ukraine but also its Western backers. Defence minister Sergei Shoigu said Russia would draft 300,000 reservists to support its military campaign.
The move was Russia's first mobilisation since the Second World War. According to the decree published on the Kremlin's website, the call-up would only apply to reservists with previous military experience. However, in the months that followed reports began to emerge that Russia was allegedly rounding up homeless people and sending them to the frontlines. A Kyiv-based charity group, Food Not Bombs, told the independent Russian news outlet Mediazona that it had seen dozens of homeless men being taken off the street to enlistment offices. Ukrainian soldiers believe Kherson liberation is 'only the beginning of our big victory'. Now that Ukraine has taken back Kherson city, some of its soldiers are on an emotional high. Military volunteer Seva Koshel, speaking on our Ukraine War Diaries podcast, said he had visited a hospital for injured soldiers in Kyiv and that the mood there had been "really optimistic".
"When you are visiting this kind of place... you have so many of our guys, officers and soldiers without arms, without legs, heavily injured. "But there is... an atmosphere of drama. The atmosphere in hospital anyway is really good, is really optimistic. "And even these heavily injured guys, they're in a good mood and they're smiling and, of course, we have discussed [the] Kherson situation and all of us, we believe that it's only the beginning of our big victory." Indonesia’s Widodo calls on G20 to work to ‘end the war’. The Indonesian president appears to reference Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as he opens a key global summit in Bali.
