Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he would never declare a ceasefire in Ukraine without Kiev meeting certain preconditions.
Ukraine could use a ceasefire to arm itself for new attacks, which is why a sustainable solution to the conflict must be negotiated first, Putin said.
Putin pointed to earlier agreements on the Ukraine conflict from times before he ordered his full-scale invasion, which ultimately ended up “in the rubbish bin.”
He was referring to the essentially frozen conflict after Moscow illegally annexed Crimea and the presence of Moscow-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine.
“That is why we cannot simply declare a ceasefire now in the hope that the other side will take some positive steps,” Putin said at the end of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a security forum.
“We cannot allow the enemy to use this ceasefire to improve its situation, arm itself, refresh its army with the help of forced mobilisation and be ready to continue the armed conflict,” Putin said at the event held in the Kazakh capital Astana.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has turned down proposals for a ceasefire, most recently suggested by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is widely seen as having warm relations with Putin.
Ukraine is not prepared to negotiate under the current circumstances and is demanding Russia’s complete withdrawal from all occupied territories, including Crimea, as a prerequisite for peace, Zelensky said.
The Kremlin also turned down an offer by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to mediate between Moscow and Kiev, proposed in Astana.
Russia replenishes its ranks
Back in Russia, former president Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday that the Russian armed forces have had their ranks bolstered by 190,000 new volunteer recruits so far this year.
Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said that there was no shortage of military personnel and that the Kremlin’s enlistment goal was being fulfilled.
“The average daily recruitment rate remains stable and amounts to around 1,000 people,” Medvedev was quoted as saying by the state news agency TASS while at a Defence Ministry meeting.
According to estimates by the Ukrainian military leadership, almost 550,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion over two years ago.
Ukraine forced to surrender parts of Chasiv Yar
The Ukrainian army was forced to abandon the easternmost part of the small town of Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region, following months of fighting.
“The positions of our defenders have been destroyed,” the spokesman for the Khortytsia army grouping, Nazar Voloshyn, said according to the Interfax-Ukraine agency. It was therefore no longer tenable to hold the town’s Kanal district, he said on Thursday, adding that a retreat to new positions had been ordered.
Not a single intact building was left, the spokesman said, adding: “Bombardments and artillery fire have left behind a lunar landscape.”
A week ago, Voloshyn had said that the Ukrainian army had largely driven the Russian opponents out of the district.
The Russian army had previously announced its capture of the district and the one neighbouring it. Reports indicate that the Russian military used heavy glide bombs against Ukrainian positions.
For several months now, the Russian army has been advancing on Chasiv Yar. The town lies to the west of Bakhmut, which was captured in 2023.
If the town is captured, it opens the way for Russia to access the conurbation around the city of Kostiantynivka.
The Russian military also achieved territorial gains on other sections of the front. Ukrainian military observers recorded progress near Toretsk, also located in the Donetsk region. In addition, Russian units are said to have entrenched themselves in a third section of the Kharkiv region at the state border.