Ukraine pledges to enter Crimea

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The situation on the battlefield will change in Kiev’s favor from August when Western-supplied weapons reach the units. Ukraine – Kirill Budanov, director of the intelligence service of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, told the newspaper Ukrainskaya Pravda on May 24.

According to Budanov, Western weapons will make a difference because currently Ukrainian forces are very short of heavy weapons.

“Russia has 12 months of resources to wage an all-out war and then the conflict between Kiev and Moscow will end with the return of our occupied territories,” the intelligence chief of Ukraine said. .

Asked if those “occupied territories” included Crimea, which voted overwhelmingly to secede from Ukraine and participate in the 2014 Russia annexation referendum, Budanov replied: “By the end of this year, we must at least enter the territory Crimea“.

According to RT, on the same day, May 24, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu shared completely different predictions about what will happen on the ground in Ukraine. “Despite the large-scale military support from the West to the Kiev government and the pressure to punish Russia, we will continue the special military operation until all the objectives are accomplished,” Shoigu said. .

Former Secretary of State Kissinger warns of deadline for peace talks

Meanwhile, speaking online at the ongoing World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, veteran American statesman, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger warned that, Russian-Ukrainian conflict must end in two months, or it will spiral out of control.

According to Kissinger, there is still a small chance to quell the armed conflict in Ukraine and find a peaceful solution. Otherwise, Russia could break away from Europe and become a long-term ally of Russia China.

“Negotiations on peace need to start in about two months, before the conflict creates upheavals and tensions will not be easily overcome,” the 98-year-old veteran diplomat said of the crisis. . The outcome, he said, will determine the rest of Europe’s relations with Russia and Ukraine.

“Ideally, the line should return to the status quo,” he said. I believe that pursuing the war beyond that point will not turn it into a war for the freedom of Ukraine, which has been NATO carried out with close coherence, which becomes a war against Russia”.

Former Secretary of State Kissinger – known for his pragmatic approach to international relations – put the practical interests of nations above their ideological stance. He recalled that, eight years ago, when the Ukraine crisis was kicked off with an armed coup in Kiev, he campaigned for Ukraine to become a neutral country and “a bridge between Russia and Europe” rather than… a front line of groups within Europe.”

Instead, however, Kiev pursues NATO membership as a strategic goal, paving the way for the current hostilities. Former Secretary of State Kissinger said that the opportunity he promoted then was gone, but “it can still be seen as an end goal”.

The West should keep in mind the bigger picture and remember that “Russia has for 400 years been an essential part of Europe,” the diplomat said. He warned that the continent should be careful “so that Russia is not pushed into a long-term alliance with China”.

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger referring to the escalating confrontation between China and the US, said that the two countries now see each other as the only viable strategic competitors on the world stage. He said that an arms race between the two countries is a particularly worrying scenario for the whole world.

“A conflict with modern technology waged in the absence of any prior arms control negotiations would be a disaster for humanity,” he said.

The gathering in Davos this week is the latest international forum to invite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to attend. In his speech, Mr. Zelensky asked for more weapons to be supplied to Kiev and more sanctions against Russia. Zelensky stated that Moscow is not interested in negotiating peace.

Meanwhile, Russia has repeatedly said that it was Ukraine who stalled the peace talks after making some progress in Istanbul, Turkey, in late March.

On May 23, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko reiterated that Russia was not the one who initiated the freezing of the negotiations. “We are ready to come back negotiate as soon as Ukraine showed a constructive stance and minimally reacted to the proposals we sent,” he stressed.