MOSCOW: A day after Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump spoke by phone on Ukraine, showering each other with compliments, Russian home-maker Anastasia had one wish: for Moscow to finish what it started in 2022.<\/p>\n
In the fourth spring of Moscow\u2019s devastating offensive, which has killed tens of thousands, diplomatic movement in recent days has given Russians a boost in confidence that victory \u2014 in some shape or another \u2014 is approaching.<\/p>\n
In the call with Trump on Monday, the Russian leader once again brushed off calls for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, as demanded by the West and Kyiv.<\/p>\n
Despite that, the US president said the \u201ctone\u201d of the conversation was \u201cexcellent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Russia controls a fifth of Ukraine and holds an upper hand on the battlefield.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am rooting for our country, I love it very much and I just want Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin) to just, after all, get justice done,\u201d Anastasia told AFP in the Moscow suburbs, echoing official language calling for the defeat of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Not knowing how or when it would happen, the 40-year-old mother, who declined to give her surname, said she was getting impatient.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want my children to have to solve this issue. Let\u2019s decide it here and now.\u201d<\/p>\n
But she had no trust in Trump \u2014 who she said is \u201cjust a businessman\u201d who \u201cwants money and nothing else\u201d \u2014 and worried the \u201cAnglo-Saxons\u201d will trick Russia.<\/p>\n
Putin has shown no sign of scaling down his maximalist demands for ending the Ukraine conflict, seeking little short of capitulation from Kyiv.<\/p>\n
At talks in Istanbul last week, Russian negotiators demanded Ukraine abandon territory it still controls in the east and south.<\/p>\n
Russia also wants Ukraine barred from NATO and for Western military support to end.<\/p>\n
Putin has repeatedly called for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to be removed from office.<\/p>\n
Confidence was tinged with uncertainty in Moscow after the Putin-Trump call, in which the Russian leader floated a vague \u201cmemorandum\u201d that would outline demands for a peace deal and Trump said Kyiv and Moscow would begin talks swiftly.<\/p>\n
Many in Moscow did not know what Trump or Putin meant.<\/p>\n
Asked what her main feeling was following the talks, pensioner Sofiya said: \u201cUncertainty.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s interesting what will happen to us, not only to our families, but our country,\u201d said the 72-year-old, who declined to give her surname.<\/p>\n
Like many, Sofiya saw no real progress from last week\u2019s talks \u2014 the first direct negotiations on the conflict in more than three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how to express this, but I would like calm and peace,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Moscow has ramped up military censorship amid its Ukraine offensive, threatening years in prison for those who criticize or question the campaign.<\/p>\n
Zelensky said Russia was not serious about talks and is trying to \u201cbuy time\u201d to continue its offensive.<\/p>\n
Putin was indeed hoping to advance more on the ground and will not \u201cmiss the opportunity\u201d for a summer offensive, said Russian analyst Konstantin Kalachev.<\/p>\n
He called the Trump call a \u201ctactical victory\u201d for the Russian leader.<\/p>\n
\u201cRussia is hoping to push them (Ukrainian forces) this summer,\u201d Kalachev said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be no peace, while Russia has not yet used the option of a final offensive,\u201d he said, highlighting the prospect of a summer ground campaign.<\/p>\n
Though Putin said both sides should be ready to make \u201ccompromises,\u201d few were forthcoming from the Kremlin or on the streets of Moscow.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that Odesa, Kharkiv, Nikolayev (Mykolaiv), Kyiv should be ours,\u201d said another pensioner, 70-year-old Marina, who also declined to give her surname, reeling off a string of Ukrainian cities that Russia has not formally claimed.<\/p>\n
Russian state TV said Moscow\u2019s negotiators threatened in Istanbul to seize more land if Ukraine does not pull its troops out of the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions that Moscow claims to have annexed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the four regions will not be recognized in the nearest future, the next time there will be six regions,\u201d said state TV presenter Yevgeny Popov.<\/p>\n
Moscow\u2019s chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky later evoked Russia\u2019s 21-year war with Sweden in the 18th century, hinting Moscow was ready for a long fight.<\/p>\n
Marina, too, said she would support Russia to fight on, even as thousands of Russian soldiers have been killed.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, it is a big shame that our people are also dying,\u201d she told AFP. \u201cBut there is no other way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOSCOW: A day after Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump spoke by phone on Ukraine, showering each other with compliments, Russian home-maker Anastasia had one wish: for Moscow to finish what it started in 2022. In the fourth spring of Moscow\u2019s devastating offensive, which has killed tens of thousands, diplomatic movement in recent days has given …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81260"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81287,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81260\/revisions\/81287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}