Negotiation chances?
Kremlin spokesman irons Lavrov off – Putin and Erdogan before meeting again
Created: 09/12/2022, 20:58
By: Florian Naumann, Franziska Schwarz
Ukraine is having success with its counter-offensive, and the Kremlin is bringing new negotiations into play.
Speaker Peskow brakes now.
News ticker on diplomacy in the Ukraine war.
New meeting between
Putin
and
Erdogan
: debate about grain exports
Russia ambassador
rages over
arms shipments
: "Red line crossed"
Lavrov
makes people sit up and take notice with new
negotiation signals
: Foreign Minister refers to Putin
This
news ticker
on the
status of diplomacy
in the
Ukraine war
is continuously updated.
Update from September 12, 1:22 p.m
.: Despite Ukraine’s successful counter-offensive: “The special military operation will continue,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted, according to the Interfax news agency.
"Until the initially set goals are achieved," added Peskow.
And: There is currently “no prospect of negotiations” between Moscow and Kyiv, according to Peskov.
The day before, however, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov promised new negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.
The 54-year-old Peskov was only evasive when asked by journalists whether Russia's military leadership still enjoyed the trust of Kremlin chief Putin.
Officially, Moscow has so far justified the withdrawal of its troops from Kharkiv with a strategic "regrouping" of its own units.
Moscow's war goals include the complete conquest of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.
Picture from September 6: Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in Vladivostok © Maxim Slutsky/Imago
Meeting of Putin and Erdogan in Samarkand: dispute over grain exports
Update from September 12, 12:47 p.m
.: Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin wants to meet with Turkish head of state Recep Tayyip Erdogan this week.
According to information from the
Nexta
portal , Erdogan also wants to offer another meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The background to the planned Putin-Erdogan meeting: the grain deal in the Ukraine war.
The export agreement came about in July with Turkish mediation.
Last week, however, Putin criticized the implementation as insufficient - and indirectly threatened to let it burst again.
At the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, according to Russian sources, Putin also wants to meet Xi Jinping, head of state of China.
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Battle tanks from the West to Ukraine: Lambrecht sees no rethinking
Update from September 12, 12:19 p.m
.: Kiev continues to call for western battle tanks, but Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) has distanced herself from it.
At the meeting of the so-called Ukraine contact group in Ramstein, she spoke to her US colleague Lloyd Austin about it.
"At least I didn't have this perception that there was a rethinking in the USA," Lambrecht said at a discussion round of the German Society for Foreign Relations (DGAP) in Berlin.
Russia ambassador rages over arms shipments: "Red line crossed"
Update from September 12, 11:29 a.m
.: After Ukraine’s recent successes with its counter-offensive, several politicians in the traffic light coalition demanded further arms deliveries to Kiev over the weekend.
Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) now also tweeted: "We have to check every day whether we can do more to help them in this war."
SPD leader Saskia Esken has not ruled out the delivery of battle tanks, but insists on international coordination.
"Going it alone is out of the question and it should stay that way," she said in Braunschweig.
Esken does not believe that the so-called ring swap with Eastern European NATO partners, who are supposed to hand over Soviet-designed tanks to the Ukraine and receive replacements for them, has failed.
Russian ambassador: Berlin crosses "red line" with weapons in Ukraine war
Meanwhile, the Russian ambassador in Berlin, Sergey Nechayev, has made serious allegations.
"The mere delivery of lethal weapons to the Ukrainian regime, which are used not only against Russian soldiers but also against the civilian population in Donbass, is a 'red line' that the German government (...) should not have crossed," Nechayev said in an
interview published in the Russian daily
Izvestia .
Nechayev referred to Germany's "moral and historical responsibility for the crimes of Nazism in World War II".
According to him, Germany is one of the driving forces behind the West's sanctions policy against Russia.
The ambassador therefore denied Berlin a mediating role in the conflict.
Zaporizhia nuclear plant under fire: Putin and Macron on the phone
Update from September 12, 6:41 a.m
.: New details from the phone call from Putin and Macron to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant: The Russian President has called for international action on Ukraine so that it stops attacking the plant, according to a Kremlin statement .
The Elysée Palace said his French counterpart Macron emphasized that the Russian occupation was the reason for the dangerous situation at the nuclear power plant.
He demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops.
Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of shelling the facility itself.
Reports: Putin wants to postpone referendums in eastern Ukraine over counter-offensive
Update from September 11, 7:20 p.m.:
According to media reports, Russia wants to postpone the planned referenda in the Kharkiv and Zaporizhia Oblasts.
The background is probably the Ukrainian counter-offensive, reports
Kyiv Independent
, citing the Russian exile medium
Meduza
.
A planned referendum in Cherson is not affected for the time being.
Vladimir Putin's party only proposed on Wednesday (September 7) a referendum in the Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine on their annexation for early November.
"It would be right and symbolic" to hold such a referendum "in the Donbass and the liberated areas" on November 4, the Day of National Unity in Russia, Secretary General Andrei Turchak said.
In March 2014, Russia had already organized a referendum on the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea after Russian special forces intervened there.
The vote was clearly criticized by Kyiv and Western governments.
Update from September 11, 7:11 p.m .:
In the midst of Russian withdrawal movements in the Ukraine war, regional elections are taking place in Russia – victories for the Putin party “United Russia” are apparently emerging.
Independent observers noted evidence of fraud.
The Interior Ministry, however, reported nothing of the sort.
Ukraine war: Putin and Macron are on the phone again – nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia topic
Update from September 11, 5:16 p.m .:
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has just signaled a willingness to negotiate with Ukraine.
Now the head of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, and French President Emmanuel Macron have apparently spoken to each other again.
According to information from Moscow, the conversation was about the situation at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant.
According to a Kremlin statement on Sunday, Putin has called for international action on Ukraine to stop its attacks on the facility.
Shortly before, it had become known that the largest nuclear power plant in Europe had to be shut down completely.
According to the Ukrainian nuclear authority Enerhoatom, all connection lines to the power grid were temporarily interrupted due to shelling.
The Russian side also confirmed the shutdown of the power plant.
For its part, Kyiv repeatedly accuses the Russian troops of shelling the nuclear power plant, which has been under their control since March.
War in Ukraine: Klitschko announces liberation of “entire Ukraine”.
Update from September 11, 5:03 p.m
.: Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko asks Germany for arms deliveries.
"Supply what you can to expel the Russian soldiers from our country quickly," Klitschko told
Bild.
Klitschko sees the Ukrainian army's recent territorial gains as "the first major military success".
This came about "also with the help of Western weapons".
From Germany, for example, Leopard 2 tanks are now crucial to quickly advance the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
FDP politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann also recently requested the delivery of the tanks.
In order to better protect and equip its soldiers, Ukraine needs more arms deliveries "right now," Klitschko told
Bild
.
He also announced a liberation of “all Ukraine”.
The question is, however, “how quickly this will happen and how high the number of victims will be”.
Ukraine news: Putin's new stance?
Lavrov makes people sit up and take notice with negotiation signals
September 11 overview:
Kiev/Berlin – According to media reports, Ukraine is making great progress in its counter-offensive in the east of the country.
Vladimir Putin's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has now commented on the subject of possible negotiations.
Not least in view of the changed war situation, his statements on the Russian state television Rossiya-1 were quite remarkable.
"Russia does not oppose negotiations with Ukraine," Lavrov said on Sunday (September 11).
The top Kremlin diplomat even seemed to be pushing for quick talks.
"But the longer the process is delayed, the more difficult it becomes to reach an agreement," he added.
Putin made this position clear at a meeting with politicians from the State Duma.
Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine have been suspended for months.
Lavrov once again justified the Russian actions on TV.
He spoke of a confrontation with the whole West.
He tries to maintain his supremacy under all circumstances.
But humanity is moving towards a more just world order with multipolar centers of power, predicted Russia's chief diplomat.
Officially, Moscow blames Kyiv for stopping the negotiations.
However, Russia is making tough conditions for peace.
Ukraine should not only refrain from joining NATO, but also agree to high territorial losses.
Moscow has demanded the cession of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Other official demands from the Kremlin are a “demilitarization” and a “denazification” of Ukraine.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during his visit to Cairo, Egypt on July 24, 2022. (Archive photo) © ITAR-TASS/Imago Images
War in Ukraine: According to Strack-Zimmermann, Germany should deliver Leopard 2
Meanwhile, leading politicians from the parties of the traffic light coalition in the Bundestag are calling for more support for Ukraine's counter-offensive against Russia.
The attacked country recently reported territory gains.
"Germany must immediately do its part in Ukraine's successes and deliver protected vehicles, the Marder infantry fighting vehicle and the Leopard 2 battle tank," said Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, FDP defense politician.
She also urged not to waste any time.
"And this is definitely not the time of procrastination and hesitation," says Strack-Zimmermann.
The Ukraine War in Pictures - Destruction, Resistance and Hope
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Ukraine's successes against Russia: SPD foreign politician sees "new phase of the war"
After Ukraine's military successes, SPD foreign policy expert Michael Roth also spoke out in favor of quickly supporting the country with new weapons.
"In this new phase of the war, Ukraine needs weapons that enable it to liberate areas occupied by Russia and keep them under permanent control," Roth told the
Funke
newspapers.
The Greens defense expert Agnieszka Brugger also spoke out in favor of increasing arms deliveries.
Especially in the areas of air defense, protected transport, artillery and protective equipment "we should do everything possible," she told the
Funke
media group.
"All options have to be put to the test again without any bans on thinking."
The CDU foreign politician Roderich Kiesewetter made a similar statement for the opposition.
"In order for the counteroffensive to be successful in the long term and for Ukraine to keep its state territory, all possible military support is needed now," he told the
Funke
newspapers.
Kiesewetter called on Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (both SPD) to give up their cautious approach to supplying the Ukraine with western-made tanks.
(dpa/frs/fn)