Territory Restoration, War Crimes Punishment: Zelenskyy Lists Conditions For Ukraine-Russia Peace Talks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has listed conditions for peace negotiations with Russia, including restoration of occupied territories and compensation for damages caused in Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

Anton Gerashchenko, Advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, listed the set of conditions in a tweet: 1. Restoring territorial integrity, 2. Respecting UN Statute, 3. Paying off all damages caused by war, 4. Punishing each war criminal, 5. Guarantees this won't happen again

Gerashchenko shared a video of Zelenskyy in which he lists these conditions. 

"To negotiations that we have proposed numerous times, to which we always received crazy Russian responses, news and terrorist attacks, shellings or blackmail," said Zelenskyy in a video shared by Gerashchenko before going to list the five conditions for talks mentioned above.

Ukraine's president has suggested he's open to peace talks with Russia, softening his earlier refusal to negotiate with Moscow while President Vladimir Putin is in power — while sticking to Kyiv's demands.

Zelenskyy's appeal to the international community late Monday to "force Russia into real peace talks" reflected a change in rhetoric. He signed a decree in late September stating "the impossibility of holding talks" with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But since his conditions appear to be non-starters for Moscow, it's hard to see how Zelenskyy's latest comments would advance any talks.

Western weapons and aid have been key to Ukraine's ability to fight off Russia's invasion, which some initially expected would tear through the country with relative ease. But US mid-term elections on Tuesday will define the amount and the shape of Washington's future political and financial support for Ukraine.

While the Ukraine War has garnered strong bipartisan support in the US Congress, a growing conservative opposition could complicate that next year if Republicans take control of the House. Recent comments from Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, saying lawmakers would not cut a "blank check" to Ukraine have more clearly reflected the party's growing skepticism about the cost of support for Ukraine.

In private, Republican lawmakers who support aid to Ukraine say there could be an opportunity to pass one more tranche of assistance this year with the current Congress.

Russia and Ukraine held several rounds of talks in Belarus and Turkey early on in the war, which is now nearing its nine-month mark, and Zelenskyy initially even called for a personal meeting with Putin — something the Kremlin has brushed off. The talks stalled after the last meeting of the delegations, held in Istanbul in March, yielded no results.

Russia resumed calls for talks after Ukraine's successful counteroffensive in the east and the south of the country began in September — but ever since Putin illegally annexed four regions of Ukraine, Kyiv has rejected the possibility of negotiating with him.

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko stressed on Tuesday that Moscow is not setting any conditions for the resumption of talks and accused Kyiv of lacking "good will".

"This is their choice, we have always declared our readiness for such negotiations," said Rudenko.

Ukraine's presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak insisted in a tweet Monday that "Ukraine has never refused to negotiate," but first, Russia needs to withdraw its troops from the country. 

"Is Putin ready? Obviously not," Podolyak wrote. 

The state of Ukraine War

In other developments in the Ukraine War, Russian attacks continue to inflict casualties on the Ukrainian site and Russian-installed authorities in occupied Ukrainian territories are bracing for the further thrust of Ukrainian counter-offensive.

In the eastern Donetsk region, which the Russians are struggling to take full control of, Moscow's shelling killed three civilians and wounded seven others over the past 24 hours, according to Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko.

Kyrylenko said the fatalities occurred in the city of Bakhmut, a key target of Russia's grinding offensive in Donetsk, and the town of Krasnohorivka. Ukraine's deputy defense minister last week described the Bakhmut area as “the epicenter” of fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Elsewhere, two civilians were seriously wounded by unexploded mines in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region, where Kyiv's forces retook broad swaths of territory in September, Kharkiv Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said. 

In the partially occupied Kherson region in the south, where Ukraine's troops are conducting a successful counteroffensive, Russian-installed authorities said they have “completed” measures to evacuate residents ahead of anticipated Ukrainian advances.

The Kremlin-appointed administration had sought to relocate tens of thousands of people in anticipation of a Ukrainian advance deeper into the region. Ukrainian military and civilian officials have previously described the relocation measures as “forced displacement.” Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Kremlin-backed administration, has repeatedly denied that.

Russian-backed officials in Kherson announced that motorized ferries transporting civilians across the Dnieper River and deeper into Russian-held territory were no longer running. According to the announcement, made Monday on Telegram, the main remaining relocation route is across the Antonivskiy Bridge, which Ukrainian attacks have repeatedly damaged and is now operated by the Russian military.

Latest Ukaine-Russia fighting update

In the past 24 hours, major fighting has taken place in and around Mykolaiv in Kherson and in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, according to think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) on Tuesday, which adds that major fighting has also taken place around Lyman, Spimen, Pokrovske, Marinka, Toretsk, Bakhmut, Barastov, among other places.

ISW further reported, "Russian troops continued efforts to fix Ukrainian troops against the international border in northeastern Kharkiv Oblast.

Russian sources claimed that Ukrainian troops continued counteroffensive operations in the Svatove direction. Russian sources claimed that Russian troops conducted limited counterattacks to regain lost positions west of Kreminna. Russian sources widely claimed that proxy and Wagner Group troops entered the outskirts of Bilohorivka."

It added to reports that Russian war reserves have been depleted by now. 

"Russian forces have greatly depleted their arsenal of high-precision weapons systems and have suffered significant aviation losses and will likely struggle to maintain the current pace of the Russian military’s coordinated campaign against Ukrainian critical infrastructure," reported ISW.

(With AP inputs)