In an interview with Spain's 20 Minutes, former Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb said that Russia and Ukraine can only start peace talks if they are put under pressure. Meanwhile, Hungary called on the West to "guarantee security" for Moscow.
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| Former Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb believes that Russia and Ukraine can only start peace talks if they are put under pressure. (Source: Haaretz) |
“(To start peace talks) it takes powers like China and major powers in the East and South to put pressure on Moscow to come to the negotiating table,” Mr. Stubb stressed.
If that happens, then certainly the United States and the Kingdom of Belgium will have to do the same with (Ukrainian President Volodimir) Zelensky to convince him that it is time to negotiate. There must be pressure from both sides.”
Russia has repeatedly expressed its position on the conflict in Ukraine. As Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted earlier, the country has always kept open the possibility of a diplomatic solution to the conflict and is ready to respond to truly serious proposals.
* In a related development, Chief of Staff of the Hungarian Prime Minister - Mr. Gergely Gulyas - declared that a lasting peace after the Ukraine conflict can only be achieved if Russia receives security guarantees from the West.
Speaking at a student event, Gulyas stressed that Ukraine had no realistic chance of taking back the territories it claims from Russia. He added that “it is clear that Russia does not pose a threat to Central Europe” because Moscow has not achieved a quick and decisive victory in the conflict. Gulyas said that peace talks between Russia and Ukraine would not be possible without the participation of the United States. He added that Western countries “must provide security guarantees to Russia, but certainly not NATO membership to Ukraine.” In the long term, peace between Moscow and Kiev could be maintained through the deployment of peacekeeping forces.
Last month, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban stressed that “without involving the Russians in the European security architecture, we cannot provide security for our citizens.” Hungary is not the only Western country calling for Russia’s interests to be taken into account. Last December, French President Emmanuel Macron urged the West to think about how to ensure security not only for Ukraine but also for Russia, saying NATO must address Moscow’s concerns about the US-led military bloc “being on its doorstep and deploying weapons that could threaten Russia.”
The debate over Russia’s security had been heating up before the Ukraine conflict broke out. In December 2021, Moscow presented a list of demands to the US and NATO, asking the West to impose a ban on Ukraine joining the military bloc and insisting that the alliance withdraw its troops back to the 1997 borders before the expansion. However, this proposal was rejected by the West.
President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly declared Ukraine's neutrality to be a matter of "fundamental importance" for Russia, arguing that Kiev's push to join NATO is one of the main reasons behind the military campaign in the neighboring country.
* Earlier, on the morning of September 3, the Ukrainian Air Force announced that they had destroyed 22 Russian drones in an overnight attack on the southern Odesa region.
Writing on Telegram , the Ukrainian Air Force said Russia "launched several waves of attacks using 'Shahed-136/131' drones from the south and southeast".
The statement stressed that a total of 25 Iranian-made Shahed attack drones were used and that "22 of them were destroyed by... the Air Force in cooperation with air defense forces of other components of the Ukrainian Defense Forces".
Meanwhile, the New York Times (NYT) reported that the Russian Armed Forces are using new tactics in the Northern Military District, causing concern in Ukraine. NYT stated: “According to the Ukrainian Marine Corps, the Russian military is using new tactics to make minefields, which are already dangerous, even more dangerous.
At the same time, the Ukrainian military also acknowledged that Russia had advantages in several important aspects, such as having more artillery, more tanks, more drones, and more soldiers. However, on the southern front, after weeks of fierce fighting, Ukrainian forces claimed to have broken through Russian defenses and taken control of several towns.
Since the full-scale counteroffensive began on June 4, Ukraine’s advance in the south has been significantly slowed, as its forces have had to traverse what has been described as a “maze” of heavily fortified Russian trenches and strongholds, with every movement easily detected by Russian drones monitoring the battlefield.
For its part, Russia has its own strategy for dealing with Ukraine. The Russian army has concentrated more than 100,000 soldiers behind the front lines in the northeast.
Ukraine also predicted that Russia would try to retake Robotyne, preventing Kiev from advancing further south. Recently, the Ukrainian military also discovered signs that Russia had mobilized the 76th Division – an elite reserve force, to plug the gap in the Zaporizhzhia region.
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