Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 12. EPA / Sputnik
Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 12. EPA / Sputnik
Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 12. EPA / Sputnik
Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 12. EPA / Sputnik

Putin says Ukraine peace talks are at dead end and goads the West


Soraya Ebrahimi
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that peace talks with Ukraine had hit a dead end, pledging that his troops would win and goading the West for failing to bring Moscow to heel.

Addressing the war in public for the first time since Russian forces retreated from northern Ukraine after they were halted at the gates of Kyiv, Mr Putin promised that Russia would achieve all of its "noble" aims.

In the strongest signal to date that the war will grind on, he said Kyiv had derailed peace talks by staging fake claims of Russian war crimes and by demanding security guarantees to cover the whole of Ukraine.

"We have again returned to a dead-end situation for us," Mr Putin, Russia's leader since 1999, said during a visit to the Vostochny Cosmodrome 5,550 kilometres east of Moscow.

Asked by Russian space agency workers if the operation in Ukraine would achieve its goals, he said: "Absolutely. I don't have any doubt at all."

Russia will "rhythmically and calmly" continue its operation but the most important strategic conclusion was that the unipolar international order that the US had built after the Cold War was breaking up, Mr Putin said.

He said Russia had no choice but to fight because it had to defend the Russian speakers of eastern Ukraine and prevent its former Soviet neighbour from becoming an anti-Moscow springboard for enemies.

The West has condemned the war as a brutal, imperial-style land grab in a sovereign country.

Ukraine says it has been fighting for its survival since Mr Putin annexed Crimea in 2014 and on February 21 recognised two of its rebel regions as sovereign.

He dismissed the West's sanctions, which have tipped Russia towards its worst recession since the years after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, as a failure.

"That Blitzkrieg on which our foes were counting did not work," Mr Putin said. "The United States is ready to fight with Russia until the last Ukrainian. That is the way it is."

Mr Putin, who had been all over Russian TV in the early days of the war, largely retreated from public view since Moscow's withdrawal from northern Ukraine two weeks ago.

His only public appearance in the past week was at the funeral of a nationalist politician, where he did not directly address the war.

On Monday he met the visiting Austrian Chancellor, Karl Nehammer, at a country residence outside Moscow but no images of that meeting were released.

Mr Putin dismissed Ukrainian and western claims that Russia had committed war crimes as fakes.

Since Russian troops withdrew from towns and villages around the capital Kyiv, Ukrainian troops have been showing what they say were corpses of civilians killed by Russian forces, as well as destroyed houses and burnt-out cars.

Ukraine says Russia is guilty of genocide and US President Joe Biden has accused Putin of war crimes and called for a trial.

Mr Putin said he had told western leaders to think about the destruction by the US of the Syrian city of Raqqa, the former de facto capital of ISIS, and in Afghanistan.

"Have you seen how this Syrian city was turned to rubble by American aircraft? Corpses lay in the ruins for months decomposing," he said. "Nobody cared. No one even noticed."

"There was no such silence when provocations were staged in Syria, when they portrayed the use of chemical weapons by the Assad government. Then it turned out that it was fake. It's the same kind of fake in Bucha."

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has found that poison gas was used repeatedly in Syria, including in Ghouta, an opposition-held suburb of Damascus.

Russia has objected to those findings, which implicated its ally, Syrian president Bashar Al Assad.

Washington and its allies have denied targeting civilians in the 2017 air strikes on Raqqa, a Syrian city that had become the headquarters of ISIS, which the US-led coalition was fighting.

Mr Putin, who says Ukraine and Russia are essentially one people, describes the war as an inevitable confrontation with the US, which he accuses of threatening Russia by meddling in its backyard.

Sixty-one years to the day since the Soviet Union's Yuri Gagarin blasted off to become the first man in space, Mr Putin drew an analogy between Soviet space successes and Russia's defiance today.

"The sanctions were total, the isolation was complete, but the Soviet Union was still first in space," he said.

"We don't intend to be isolated. It is impossible to severely isolate anyone in the modern world, especially such a vast country as Russia."

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This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.

LIVING IN...

This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.

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Results
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Third Test, Perth: Australia won by an innings and 41 runs
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  • Jebel Akhdar is a two-hour drive from Muscat airport or a six-hour drive from Dubai. It’s impossible to visit by car unless you have a 4x4. Phone ahead to the hotel to arrange a transfer.
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  • By air: Budget airlines Air Arabia, Flydubai and SalamAir offer direct routes to Muscat from the UAE.
  • Tourists from the Emirates (UAE nationals not included) must apply for an Omani visa online before arrival at evisa.rop.gov.om. The process typically takes several days.
  • Flash floods are probable due to the terrain and a lack of drainage. Always check the weather before venturing into any canyons or other remote areas and identify a plan of escape that includes high ground, shelter and parking where your car won’t be overtaken by sudden downpours.

 

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British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
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There are a number of speciality art bookshops in the UAE.

In Dubai, The Lighthouse at Dubai Design District has a wonderfully curated selection of art and design books. Alserkal Avenue runs a pop-up shop at their A4 space, and host the art-book fair Fully Booked during Art Week in March. The Third Line, also in Alserkal Avenue, has a strong book-publishing arm and sells copies at its gallery. Kinokuniya, at Dubai Mall, has some good offerings within its broad selection, and you never know what you will find at the House of Prose in Jumeirah. Finally, all of Gulf Photo Plus’s photo books are available for sale at their show. 

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Mainz v RB Leipzig (5.30pm)

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Updated: April 12, 2022, 9:58 PM`