Ukraine will intensify attacks and may end the war “on equal footing with the Russians”, Zelenskiy says after meeting with NATO chief
President Volodymyr Zelensky said, on Wednesday, on the sidelines of the NATO-Ukraine Council in Kiev, that his country has stepped up attacks deep into Russia to negotiate an end to the war “on equal footing” with Moscow, Reuters reported.
Ukrainian forces have been attacking Russia's fossil fuel industry for months, sometimes daily, with the aim of cutting off Moscow's main source of war financing and pressuring the Kremlin for talks.
“Thank God that today we have security guarantees that allow us to end this war on an equal footing with the Russians in any diplomatic format,” Zelenskiy told reporters in statements made alongside Mark Rutte, just hours after Ukrainian forces struck an oil terminal and a naval base in Russia, hundreds of kilometers from Ukraine's borders.
Ukraine's president says it is “only a matter of time” before his country escalates the attacks, which have forced some Russian refineries to suspend operations and boosted Ukrainian morale.
As Ukraine has stepped up its long-range attacks, Ukrainian troops appear to be in their best position on the battlefield in years, analysts say.
According to analysts, Russia's spring offensive has lost momentum, partly as a result of Ukrainian counterattacks that have reduced its progress to a minimum.
Zelensky: “I am ready for direct talks with Putin”
The Ukrainian leader said he was ready for a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. Kiev has long pushed for such a meeting, which it describes as the only way to resolve the main obstacle in the talks: the future of Donbas. Russia has not been able to fully occupy the region in eastern Ukraine and has asked Kiev to withdraw its troops from the areas it still controls.
“I'm ready for direct talks with Putin to end this war, rather than waiting for the moment when everyone resolves every conflict in the world before it's finally our turn,” Zelenskiy said, in what appeared to be an allusion to the US-brokered talks and the fact that Washington is now focusing on its own war against Iran.
