'France’s foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said he believed the Russian president was pretending to negotiate as part of a battle plan also used in Chechnya and Syria.
“Unfortunately, we’re still facing the same Russian logic – making maximalist demands, wanting Ukraine to surrender and intensifying siege warfare,” Le Drian told Le Parisien newspaper. “Just as in Grozny [in Chechnya] and Aleppo [in Syria], there are three typical elements – indiscriminate bombardment, so-called humanitarian corridors designed to allow them to accuse the other side of failing to respect them, and talks with no objective other than pretending that they are negotiating.”
Le Drian said there was only one way for Putin to show he was interested in peace and that was by engaging with “one urgent matter – ceasefire, ceasefire, ceasefire”.
“Russia refuses that for now,” he said. “So the sanctions will be intensified in a determined way until Putin realises that the price for continuing the conflict will be so high that a ceasefire is preferable and starts real talks with President Zelenskiy.”''..Paris claimed Vladimir Putin was only pretending to be interested in negotiating a peace deal.
The six countries challenged Russia before a UN security council meeting as the British foreign secretary, Liz Truss, said there was now “very, very strong evidence” of war crimes being committed by Russian forces.
“Vladimir Putin is behind them,” Truss said. “It is ultimately a matter for the international criminal court to decide who is or isn’t a war criminal and for us to bring the evidence.”
..
Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s defence minister, described the pilot who bombed the theatre in Mariupol as a monster. The word “children” had been painted in large Russian script on the ground outside the red-roofed theatre building to warn off fighter jets.
Speaking via video link to a committee of MEPs, Reznikov, who has been leading the Ukrainian delegation in peace talks with Russia, said the first step to any deal was an immediate ceasefire but he feared the Kremlin would first need to be defeated in battle.
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France’s foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said he believed the Russian president was pretending to negotiate as part of a battle plan also used in Chechnya and Syria.
“Unfortunately, we’re still facing the same Russian logic – making maximalist demands, wanting Ukraine to surrender and intensifying siege warfare,” Le Drian told Le Parisien newspaper. “Just as in Grozny [in Chechnya] and Aleppo [in Syria], there are three typical elements – indiscriminate bombardment, so-called humanitarian corridors designed to allow them to accuse the other side of failing to respect them, and talks with no objective other than pretending that they are negotiating.”
Le Drian said there was only one way for Putin to show he was interested in peace and that was by engaging with “one urgent matter – ceasefire, ceasefire, ceasefire”.
“Russia refuses that for now,” he said. “So the sanctions will be intensified in a determined way until Putin realises that the price for continuing the conflict will be so high that a ceasefire is preferable and starts real talks with President Zelenskiy.”
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Six countries including UK and US accuse Russia of war crimes in Ukraine, March 17, 2022
ContextUN's Top Court Orders Russia To Halt Invasion Of Ukraine(Complete withdrawal from Ukraine (Crimea and the Donbas))(Russian mutiny, desertion) - '.."major manpower problems" for Russian forces.'