Peace talks ‘out of the question’ for Ukraine as Russia continues airstrikes

A senior Ukrainian official said peace talks with Russia are “out of the question” after Russia’s latest bombardments, which included at least 100 missiles shot on Friday alone.

The comments from President Volodymyr Zelensky’s adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, came after Zelensky’s marathon meetings with European leaders last week to push for Ukraine to become an associate member of NATO, join the European Union and solicit more military aid.

“In periodic ‘peace and talks’ rhetoric the Kremlin says it won’t leave the [Ukraine] territories & won’t be responsible for crimes,” Podolyak wrote on Twitter Saturday morning. “It’s another proof that talks are out of the question. Only [Ukraine] victory, otherwise the war in Europe won’t end, and [Russia] will criminally dominate the world.”

Zelensky said that his “diplomatic marathon” to London, Paris, and Brussels yielded “good signals” that Ukraine would receive more military backing, which he said includes long-range missiles, tanks, and combat aircraft in a statement posted to the presidential website.

“It’s wrong to disclose its details, but we can say we heard each other. France – Ukraine, Germany – Ukraine. Partners have heard our position, our arguments,” Zelensky said. “There will be more support.”

The whirlwind of meetings also included one in which Zelensky pled for Russian and Belarusian athletes to be banned from the Paris Olympics this summer. At least 228 Ukrainian athletes and coaches have died as a result of the ongoing conflict with Russia, he said.

The meeting, held virtually, was attended by representatives of 35 countries including the United States, Germany, and Australia.

“If there’s an Olympics sport with killings and missile strikes, you know which national team would take the first place,” Zelensky told the attendees. “Terror and Olympism are two opposites, they cannot be combined.”

British Sports Minister Lucy Frazer later tweeted about the meeting, signaling that the UK is on board with banning Russia from the upcoming Olympic games.

“I made the UK’s position very clear: As long as Putin continues his barbaric war, Russia and Belarus must not be represented at the Olympics,” Frazer wrote.

In response, Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin told TASS news agency the call for Russia and Belerus to be banned from the Paris Olympics is “absolutely unacceptable.”

“This is a direct interference of ministers in the activities of independent international sports organizations, an attempt to dictate the conditions for the participation of athletes in international competitions, which is absolutely unacceptable,” Matytsin said.

Separately, Zelensky met with JPMorgan Chase to talk about private capital helping to fund Ukraine’s rebuilding.

“We discussed the creation of a platform for attracting private capital to rebuild Ukraine, as well as promising directions of large investment projects in Ukraine, in particular in green energy, IT and agricultural technologies,” Zelensky wrote Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian military reported massive shelling from Russia that saw over 100 missile strikes, some of which targeted civilian infrastructure on Friday.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said that the country was hit by 32 anti-aircraft guided missiles, 74 cruise missiles — 61 of which were destroyed by Ukrainian missile defenses — and 59 air strikes.

“Unfortunately, there were hits. Unfortunately, there are victims,” Zelensky said.

Friday, Ukraine launched a dozen air strikes on Russian forces, including four strikes on areas with Russian anti-aircraft missile systems, the Ukrainian army said.

The attacks continued Saturday, with 23 air strikes during the day, as fighting continued in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. More than 50 towns and cities were slammed with Russian shelling, the army said.

Separately, Moscow is apparently trying to drain a major reservoir that provides drinking water for hundreds of thousands of residents, irrigation for a half million acres of farmland and crucially, water for the cooling system at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, National Public Radio reported.

Satellite data shows that the water level at the reservoir has plummeted to its lowest point in three decades as water streams through the sluice gates at critical hydroelectric power plants controlled by the Russians. Should it drop much further, the nuclear plant’s cooling system would be in peril.

The reservoir is also a critical source of water for Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014. Ukraine cut the supplies at the time of the Russian takeover, but last summer they were restarted after the reservoir fell under Russia’s control. There are now 23 reservoirs in Crimea that have been refilled.