On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in one of his first public statements after the withdrawal of Russian troops from northern Ukraine, that the peace talks with Ukraine arrived at a “dead end” and predicts the continuation of the war until it “achieves its objectives”.

According to multiple reports, Russia is planning a new operation to end or make significant progress in its military operation in Ukraine by May 9, Victory Day, to celebrate the former Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany, with a decisive battle in the east Ukraine’s Donbas region.

The statements were the strongest signs yet that the war in Ukraine will continue for longer. Putin said that Kiev broke up the peace talks by staging “false allegations of war crimes by Russia” and demanded security guarantees to cover the whole of Ukraine.

On other hand, Moscow sees Mariupol as a key component in its attempts to annex eastern Ukraine and move westward. Ukrainian officials are looking into claims that Russian forces used chemical weapons against Ukrainian forces.

However, the Russian government has not spoken yet about the alleged use of chemical weapons in Mariupol publicly.

Putin also dismissed Ukrainian and Western claims that Russia had committed war crimes as fakes.

Since Russian troops withdrew from towns and villages around the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Ukrainian troops have been showing journalists corpses of what they say are civilians killed by Russian forces, destroyed houses, and burnt-out cars.

More details from Wayne Dupree reports: 

After Russian troops withdrew from Bucha, a village west of Kyiv, where local officials reported finding hundreds of dead civilians, Mr. Putin said peace talks had come to a halt because of a “fake” situation there. Investigations are being conducted by Ukrainian and Western officials into possible war crimes perpetrated in these and other formerly Russian-held cities in northern Ukraine prior to Moscow’s withdrawal at the end of March.

He also claimed that Ukrainian negotiators had strayed from the Istanbul accord. The sides haven’t made any progress toward a possible ceasefire despite Kyiv’s demand for a neutral status and international security guarantees late last month.

This is where we’ve been all along,” Putin stated. It is well-known that inconsistencies in critical topics have hampered our ability to reach final agreements on the negotiation track that are acceptable to us. Even without that, the military action will continue until its goals, which were first stated, have been met.

In a further indication that Russian forces will start an assault on the east, Vladimir Putin stated that the main objective of the offensive will be “to help civilians in Donbas.” During a visit to the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a Russian spaceport located in Russia’s Far East, he said that “there is no doubt” that this target would be met.

As part of a shifting combat effort, the Russian military is focusing on the Donbas, according to the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense. Russia is expected to continue to move troops from Belarus to Ukraine’s eastern regions, including the city of Kramatorsk, where a deadly missile attack occurred last week, according to British intelligence.

High-precision air and sea-based missiles launched overnight destroyed an ammunition depot and a hangar with Ukrainian aircraft at the Starokostiantyniv military airfield in the western Khmelnytskyi region, as well as an ammunition depot in the Kyiv region, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Tuesday. According to him, six Ukrainian outposts in the Donetsk region were wiped out by Russian airstrikes, which he said had targeted the 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade.

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