We're losing people on a daily basis, innocent people on the ground.
Russian forces have come to exterminate us, to kill us and
we can demonstrate that the dignity of our people and our army,
that we are able to deal a powerful blow.
We're able to strike back.
>> While the resistance against Russian troops continues to be fierce,
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is calling for
direct peace negotiations with Vladimir Putin.
It appears that the peace negotiations have in fact stalled.
And Zelensky believes that having officials from both sides get together to
have these conversations, it's just not yielding the results that he's hoping for.
So he would like to sit down with Putin himself to discuss
what a potential deal could look like.
This follows multiple peace talks between officials from both countries and
unfortunately, they have led to nowhere.
Although, I will argue that there does appear to be a little more flexibility on
Russia's side.
And we'll get to those details in just a second.
But first, why don't we watch a little more from
Vladimir Zelensky interview on CNN over the weekend.
>> I'm ready for negotiations with them.
I was ready over the last two years.
And I think that without negotiations,
we cannot end this war.
I think that all the people who think that this dialogue is shallow and
that it is not going to resolve anything.
They just don't understand that this is very valuable.
There is just 1% chance for us to stop this war.
I think that we need to take this chance, we need to do that.
>> So far, it appears that Putin is unwilling to sit down with
Vladimir Zelensky, because there are two points of contention to areas in
which Zelinsky is unwilling to move in the direction of Putin's desires.
And it has to do with officially recognizing certain portions of Ukrainian
territory as now being part of Russian territory.
Zelensky has recently indicated though, that he is in fact willing
to consider some concessions to Russia to help bring an end to the violence,
including a neutrality policy.
Although, it would be one underpinned by robust security guarantees.
Now, of course, Zelensky, I think this is common sense,
wants to ensure that if there are concessions made much like the concessions
that Ukraine made back in the 1990s when it gave up its nuclear arsenal.
That in return,
there will be actual security guarantees to protect the sovereignty of the country.
Now, Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov also weighed in on this.
And this is where I see a little bit of positivity,
who knows if this goes anywhere, but he has again brought up the fact that
Zelensky is willing to take a neutral status as part of the peace negotiations.
And being neutral means of course avoiding being part of NATO.
There might be some basically doing away with the militarization in Ukraine,
although it's unclear whether Zelensky is in any way open to that.
But here's what Sergei Lavrov said over the weekend.
After our operation in Ukraine ends and
I hope it ends with a signing of a comprehensive agreement on Ukraine's
neutral status with the guarantees of its security.
As Putin, a couple of months ago commented at a news conference on our initiative of
non-expansion of NATO, he said,
we understood every country needs guarantees of its security.
Now, I wouldn't take anything that Putin says at face value.
Remember when Ukraine gave up its nuclear arsenal, that was an agreement,
not just between the United States and Ukraine, the UK was part of that and
more importantly, Russia was part of that agreement.
And clearly, Russia has reneged on that agreement.
So, any statement from Putin claiming to understand the value of security
guarantees for Ukraine, is not something that I really take that seriously.
The question is, what will it take for Putin to withdraw his forces and
to stop carrying out the hideous violence that we're seeing day in and
day out in Ukraine?
Now, Putin did lay out several issues to achieve a ceasefire with
Ukraine in a phone call with the Turkish president Erdogan.
And according to the Turkish presidential spokesperson,
here's what we know about what Putin is demanding.
The first is Ukraine's neutrality, we talked about that.
Second, disarmament and
mutual security guarantees in the context of the Austrian model.
Third, the process that the Russian side refers to as de-Nazification.
Interesting, I would like to see if there's any kind of reckoning with Nazism
within Russia, but that wasn't mentioned of course.
Fourth, removing obstacles to the widespread use of Russian language in
Ukraine and we'll get to that in just a second.
And I think that is a problem based on what Zelensky has just implemented,
it is understood that some progress has been made in
the first four articles of the ongoing negotiations.
It is too early to say that there is full agreement or
that an agreement is about to be signed.
So there are some issues with the other demands from Putin and
I wanna get to those details right now.
So, Kalin, that's the spokesperson for Erdogan's administration,
said that Putin had additional demands that were the most difficult issues.
The recognition of the annexation of Crimea and the two so
called Republics in Donbas.
Kalin said that these final two issues are not acceptable demands for
Ukraine and the international community.
So, essentially giving up territory to Russia,
officially declaring Ukrainian territory as part of Russia's territory.
That's really the sticking point as we speak,
based on what we're hearing from officials on the Russian side.
Right, we're talking about a spokesperson from Erdogan's government, relaying this
information to us based on conversations that Putin allegedly had with Erdogan.
So, again, I mean, it's hard to confirm that this is really what's going on but
based on reports, it seems like this is where the sticking point is when it comes
to peace negotiations.
And by the way, have you really seen any other news organization
be as hyper focused on the peace negotiations rather than
how many fighter jets are we gonna send to Ukraine.
Listen, having a conversation about military capability is fine.
But I do think there's this asymmetrical coverage of the conflict in Ukraine,
the war in Ukraine, where all of the focuses is on how much money can we send?
How many weapons can we send rather than or by the way should we engage in
a direct military conflict with Russia rather than, hey, where are they?
Where do they really stand on the peace negotiations?
And what can the West do?
What can the United States do, to help, assist this process to move along?
Right, we want a ceasefire.
We want the peace negotiations.
But again, Putin is unwilling to sit down with Zelensky,
specifically over Zelensky unwillingness to give up Ukrainian territory to Russia.
And to be quite honest with you, I don't blame Zelensky for feeling that way.
I mean, imagine, any country just being invaded by a second country and
then having to give up territory after they've been attacked in an illegal war.
It is incredibly frustrating and infuriating.
Now, Ukraine also rejected Russia's demand that soldiers defending the embattled
Southport of Mariupol surrender at dawn on Monday, meaning today.
So Zelensky is like, no, I'm not going to surrender,
we're not gonna hand over Mariupol.
The deputy commander of Russia's Black Sea fleet Andrei Paliy,
died in combat in Mariupol, according to the governor of Sevastopol,
the Crimean city where the fleet is based.
Paliy is one of several high ranking Russian officers who have been killed in
action in Ukraine.
And I wanna be clear, Ukraine has claimed that four more generals
have died than have been independently confirmed, but
based on what happened to Paliy, he has been killed in the line of combat.
Now at the same time, Ukrainian officials and witnesses said Russian troops were
forcefully deporting people including children.
Oleg Nikolenko, the spokesman for Ukraine's foreign ministry,
said in a statement that 2389 children were taken from their parents
in the Donbass region and sent to Russia on a single day, Saturday.
But I wanna be clear that that claim has not been independently confirmed yet.
So the number might be lower.
You really can't take what any side says at face value.
It needs to be confirmed by an independent source.
With that said though, I wanna get to the final part of this which is concerning,
because it appears that Poland is really willing to take the next step,
which could escalate the situation.
And I'm very happy to see the United States rejected this proposal outright.
So Poland's deputy prime minister first proposed a NATO peacekeeping mission.
That is a euphemism, let me be clear.
When the leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic and
Slovenia traveled to Kiev last week to meet with Ukraine's leaders.
I think that it is necessary to have a peace mission NATO possibly some wider
international structure, but a mission that will be able to defend itself,
which will operate on Ukrainian territory, he said at a news conference in Kiev.
Again, the United States has already rejected this.
The formal proposal has not been stated yet.
This is kind of Poland putting out a statement to see if
there's any warmth to it, any reception to it.
And again,
the United States under the leadership of Joe Biden shockingly has rejected this.
And the reason why I think it's a good thing is because it's very similar to
the idea of a no fly zone.
No fly zone sounds just as lovely as a NATO peacekeeping mission.
But again, these are euphemisms, what do they really mean?
It means that NATO allies will be in direct conflict,
direct war with Russia, which escalates the situation and also,
essentially undoes any type of progress in regard to the peace negotiations.
Remember, we wanna do what's necessary to de-escalate,
not escalate this war, while also helping to support the peace negotiations
that are ongoing between Russia and Ukraine.
So that's where the story stands, as we speak.
It still appears as the Russian troops have stalled.
They continue to attack Kiev, but they have failed
to get control of Kiev or take hold of the capital.
And so, we'll see how this all plays out.
But it's really incredible to see how much Putin has miscalculated the situation.