Ukraine says Putin won't talk to Zelenskiy about Russian troop build-up despite request | Reuters
Mendel said Russia had massed more than 40,000 troops on Ukraine's eastern border and more than 40,000 troops in Crimea.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By Ilya Zhegulev
KYIV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has not yet been able to speak to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to discuss the escalating conflict in eastern Ukraine despite lodging a request to do so, Zelenskiy's spokeswoman said on Monday.
Kyiv and Moscow have traded blame over the worsening situation in the eastern Donbass region, where Ukrainian troops have battled Russian-backed forces in a conflict Kyiv says has killed 14,000 people since 2014.
Iuliia Mendel, Zelenskiy's spokeswoman, told Reuters on Monday the Ukrainian leader had so far tried and failed to speak to Putin about the matter.
"The president's office, of course, made a request to speak with Vladimir Putin. We have not received an answer yet and we very much hope that this is not a refusal of dialogue," said Mendel.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had not seen such a request for talks "in recent days" and was unaware one had been recently made.
When asked if Putin had anything to say to Zelenskiy, Peskov said he hoped that what he called "political wisdom" would prevail in Kyiv when it came to de-escalating and avoiding a potential war.
Mendel said Russia had massed more than 40,000 troops on Ukraine's eastern border and more than 40,000 troops in Crimea.
Those figures are higher than …
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Like the world needs something else to deal with.......!
It appears that Putin, like China, sees the lack of leadership in Biden's weak administration
I guess you never tire of being wrong....
I believe he predicted trumpturd would win re-election in a landslide also.
I'm rarely wrong, especially on this subject. Biden seems to be ignoring this act of intimidation.
Tell me, Greg, what is he supposed to do?
Keep in mind the Cuban Missle Crisis didn't go so well.
Is Russian trying to start another major conflict? It may do well for Putin's tough guy act, but isn't the Russian economy on the brink of collapse?
From the World Bank:
What they are banking on is the sum zero game.
Maybe they will have another Chernobyl and that will be the end of it.
Oh, wait... there might have been a nuclear bomb involved.
Distraction from local/internal events within Russia...?
That's what I'm thinking.
Me too.
You really think Putin cares? Seriously? Besides wars do wonders for the economy and population control.
Without the US/NATO giving full backing to Ukraine Russian forces roll over them.
Why the hell did Obama back the Ukrainian coup to remove a duly elected pro Russian government? WTF did he think would happen? Ukraine has been a shit storm ever since.
It also shouldn't shock anyone that Russia isn't talking to a government it doesn't consider legitimate; and nothing more than a puppet of the West.
No, little putin knows he cannot control President Biden like he could control whatshisname. Whatshisname was his little puppet. God I'd love to know what they discussed in Helsinki!!
You left out 'leftist brown shirts'
This goes all the way back to the 1994 when Ukraine joined NATO...
You'd be well served to go back and read about the election of Yanukovych, promises to the people to align with Western EU countries, the turnaround alignment with Russia, police and media crackdowns by his government, his ouster, and subsequent finding of corruption and financial embezzlement to the tune of $12-Billion from Ukraine's coffers. Once you do all that, then come back and tell us again as to why the US would want to side with Yanukovych rather than the people o f Ukraine.
People of Ukraine?
You realize that over 70% of the people of Ukraine are Russian right?
Ukraine has had a long history of corrupt leaders. The pro Western leaders NATO has backed have been no better. However they have been staunchly pro West- so that is all that matters.
US policy has been to isolate Russia by flipping former Soviet border states; Ukraine was one step too far. We didn't side with the people of Ukraine- we sided against Russia. Just another in a long line of fucked up foreign policy decisions that we are going to be paying for a very long time.
Better reread your Indexmundi post...
Ukrainian 77.8%, Russian 17.3%, Belarusian 0.6%, Moldovan 0.5%, Crimean Tatar 0.5%, Bulgarian 0.4%
And of course, the US sided with states that wanted to align themselves with Western Europe and against Russia after the fall of the wall.
He obviously doesn't.
Wonderful /s
As long as Russia keeps playing pseudo war games they'll be okay - a lot of Europe uses Russian natural gas (it's why they got away with taking Crimea). Russia knows there are strike forces off the Crimean coast whenever they start to feel really froggy.
Yep.... Making yourself dependent on Russian NG makes it difficult for EU members to really take a stand against Putin and Russia.... That leaves the US and the UK as the only allies that could be mobilized to counter Russian aggression. Putin would still turn the gas off though....
Russia would get hammered, but would make NATO pay for every mile taken and then just sit on the border keeping NATO pinned right where he wants them. Speaking of which the last time there was a build up here weren't there multiple Russian sub sightings off the coast of Norway?