Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has ruled out any peace talks that could turn Kyiv’s war with Russia into a “frozen” conflict, and denounced Moscow’s leaders as “bandits” after a missile strike on a restaurant killed 11 people and injured about 60 others.
He also urged Nato to use its summit next month to give Ukraine assurances that after its war with Russia, it will become a member of the alliance and receive security guarantees while it completes the accession process.
Mr Zelenskiy has drawn up his own plan for peace, but amid attempts by China, African leaders and the Vatican to devise their own solutions to the conflict, he said “Ukraine will not agree to any of the variants for a frozen conflict” which would allow Russia to keep hold of occupied territory “and inevitably flare up again.”
He addressed Ukraine’s parliament a day after a Russian missile hit a restaurant popular with locals, aid workers and journalists in the town of Kramatorsk in the eastern Donetsk region, killing at least 11 people and injuring about 60.
“The political and military leadership of Russia should not escape justice because they supposedly have immunity, like heads of state. They are not heads of state, they are bandits who have seized control of Russia’s state institutions…and began terrorising the whole world,” he said.
Russia’s defence ministry said the restaurant was serving as a “command post” for the Ukrainian military, but many civilians were among the victims of the strike, including twin sisters, Yulia and Anna Aksenchenko, both 14. A 17-year-old girl was also killed and a baby suffered head injuries. A writer and a reporter from Colombia were slightly hurt; and a Ukrainian journalist they were working with was critically injured.
Ukraine’s security services said they arrested a local man who allegedly sent footage of the restaurant to Russia’s military to help with targeting of the missile strike.
Polish president Andrzej Duda and Lithuanian counterpart Gitanas Nauseda travelled to Kyiv on Wednesday and reassured Mr Zelenskiy that they backed his call for Nato to give Ukraine a clear signal on membership at its forthcoming summit in Vilnius.
“We understand that we cannot be a member of Nato during the war, but we need to be sure that after the war we will be…That is the signal we want to get - that after the war, Ukraine will be a member of Nato,” Mr Zelenskiy said alongside his guests.
He also urged the organisation to commit to giving Ukraine “security guarantees - not instead of Nato, but for the time until we are in the alliance.”
Mr Zelenskiy said Ukraine did not see the potential presence of Wagner mercenaries in neighbouring Belarus as an immediate threat, after the group’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was banished to Minsk following its brief mutiny and march towards Moscow last Saturday, when it seized the southern Russian city of Rostov and shot down several military aircraft, killing their crews.
Poland and Lithuania, which also border Belarus, have said they see growing threats from its potential role as a new Wagner base and Russia’s deployment of tactical nuclear missiles in the country.
“The presence of the Wagner group in Belarus is a very significant signal which, in our opinion, Nato should definitely address. Questions arise as to why these troops were relocated there. A group of experienced mercenaries can always pose a potential danger,” Mr Duda’s office quoting him as saying in Kyiv.
The New York Times reported that senior Russian military general Sergei Surovikin knew of Wagner’s mutiny plans, while the Wall Steet Journal said Mr Prigozhin wanted to capture Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff. The Kremlin dismissed such stories as “gossip” and “speculation”.
Meanwhile, US president Joe Biden has said Russian leader Vladimir Putin has “absolutely” been weakened as a result of the Wagner uprising.
