Moscow willing to negotiate terms of Ukraine’s surrender

Russian government spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that Moscow is willing to negotiate the terms of Ukraine’s surrender.

Peskov said that Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to talk with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky if Ukraine agrees to compromise on Russia regarding its “red lines”.

These include that Ukraine guarantees neutral status, as well as the removal of certain weapons from its territory.

Ukrainian forces battled Russian invaders on three sides on Thursday after Moscow mounted an assault by land, sea and air in the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two.

After Russian President Vladimir Putin declared war in a pre-dawn televised address, explosions and gunfire were heard throughout the morning in Kyiv, a city of 3 million people.

Missiles rained down on Ukrainian targets and authorities reported columns of troops pouring across Ukraine’s borders from Russia and Belarus to the north and east, and landing on the southern coasts from the Black Sea and Azov Sea.

The assault brought a calamitous end to weeks of fruitless diplomatic efforts by Western leaders to avert war.

After a day of fighting, Putin told business people in Moscow he had no choice but to act, while Western leaders condemned the Russian leader and promised sweeping economic sanctions.

“This hideous and barbarous venture of Vladimir Putin must end in failure,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told parliament, announcing measures targeting banks, members of Putin’s closest circle and super-rich Russians who enjoy high-rolling London lifestyles. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Ukrainians to defend their country and said arms would be given to anyone prepared to fight.

“What we have heard today are not just missile blasts, fighting and the rumble of aircraft. This is the sound of a new Iron Curtain, which has come down and is closing Russia off from the civilised world,” Zelenskiy said.

As night fell, the picture of what was happening on the ground was sketchy. Russia’s defense ministry said it had destroyed 83 land-based Ukrainian targets and had achieved all its goals, according to Interfax news agency.

An adviser to the Ukrainian presidential office said Russian forces had captured the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, just 90 km (60 miles) north of the capital, and Hostomel airport in the Kyiv region, where paratroopers had earlier been landed.

Fierce fighting was taking place in the regions of Sumy and Kharkiv in the northeast and Kherson and Odessa in the south. The highway heading west out of Kyiv was choked with traffic across five lanes as residents fled.

Darkest Hour
In his address, Putin said he had ordered “a special military operation” to protect people, including Russian citizens, subjected to “genocide” in Ukraine – an accusation the West calls baseless propaganda.

U.S. President Joe Biden called the Russian action an “unprovoked and unjustified attack” and EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said: “These are among the darkest hours of Europe since the Second World War”.