“We are ready to negotiate acceptable solutions with all actors involved, but it depends on them – it’s not us who refuse to negotiate, it’s them”hammered Vladimir Putin in an interview broadcast on Russian public television.
But accusing Ukraine and the West of wanting “dividing historical Russia”also “He has indicated that he wants to keep the territories [ukrainiens] Russian-speaking peoples invaded by his forces – an obstacle to any serious peace negotiations”, to observe The independent.
The concept of “historical Russia” is employed by Putin to maintain the idea that “Ukrainians and Russians are the same person”et “thus justifying his ten-month offensive and his work of undermining Ukrainian sovereignty”, appreciated Al Jazeera. Indeed, the Russian president assured Sunday that Westerners were trying to do it “divide and conquer” while the Kremlin’s goal would be, on the contrary, to“uniting the Russian people”.
Air raid sirens
The Kremlin “he constantly declares himself ready to negotiate, but for Kiev and its allies Putin’s statements are just a ploy to buy time, after several defeats of Russian forces on the battlefield”, he writes for himself The Guardian.
Even the White House has “he downplayed Putin’s seemingly conciliatory tone, noting that he had shown no real indication of his willingness to negotiate an end to the war”, adds Village. “Quite the opposite”even said John Kirby, spokesman for the US defense minister. “Everything he does [Poutine] contributes to the escalation ».
The New York Times relief that for the Ukrainians Christmas was marked above all by the sound of anti-aircraft sirens, “one in the morning, throughout the territory, the other in the afternoon”. If in the end no Russian missiles appear to have hit the country, “the sirens have added to the anxiety of this first Christmas since the invasion”while the Ukrainians, in unison with their leaders, expect “a new wave of strikes against energy infrastructure”.
Poutine “lonelier than ever”
In his daily speech, quoted from The independent of KievUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked his compatriots to prepare for the end of the year “dark and difficult”. Russia “Lost everything this year, but [Poutine] tries to compensate for its losses with the deception of its propagandists, after bombing our country and our energy sector”he said.
For Marie Mendras, specialist in Russia questioned by The avant-gardePutin is today “more alone and isolated than ever. The only ally he has left is Iran.. Weighed down by a war that “it harms its own people, its economy, and its relationships with its neighbors”Russian president “He’s cornered. And everyone knows it”.
Pope Francis also spoke of the war in Ukraine in his traditional Christmas message: from Rome, the sovereign pontiff condemned a war “nonsense” and solicited “those who have the power to silence weapons” to end the conflict ” immediately “, according to The Republic.
