At the same time, the Russian dictator said he was “ready to wait for Kyiv’s consent (to begin negotiations).”
Read also: Missile attacks prove negotiations with Putin are impossible, German MP says
Putin claimed that Moscow had reached some agreement with the Ukrainian delegation in Istanbul, Turkey, and then “the results of these negotiations were thrown into the bin.”
“And now they have forbidden themselves to discuss anything with us,” the Russian leader said.
“Well, how can we discuss possible agreements now, if the other side does not even want to talk to us. Fine, we will wait.”
Read also: Negotiations have no chance of ending Russia’s war against Ukraine, says Germany
Earlier in the day Russia launched another mass missiles and suicide drone attack across Ukraine, targeting energy infrastructure including powers stations and hydroelectric dams.
Kyiv said Ukrainian air defenses shot down 44 of 50 incoming Russian cruise missiles, but that some missiles and Iranian-made flying bombs had hit 18 targets in 10 of the country’s 25 oblasts.
Following earlier mass missile attacks on energy infrastructure, Ukraine has repeatedly underlined that it will not conduct negotiations with Putin, who launched a full-scale invasion and war against the country on Feb. 24, with the apparent aim of toppling the democratically elected government in Kyiv.
The Russian dictator now appears to be on the back foot, with his military suffering a series of embarrassing military defeats at the hands of Ukrainian forces since launching his full-scale war.
Read also: Negotiations possible with Russia only with next Russian president, says Zelenskyy’s office
First, the Russian army was forced at the end of March to abandon its attempt to capture the Ukrainian capital after becoming bogged down by bumbling logistical failures and meeting stiff resistance from Ukrainian forces, which destroyed some of the Kremlin’s most prestigious military units.
Defeated at the gates of Kyiv, Russians were forced to retreat from Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy oblasts in the north and center of Ukraine, and the Kremlin quickly changed its war aim to conquering the whole of Ukraine’s Donbas region, which is made up of the Ukrainian oblasts of Donetsk and Luhansk.
However, after eight months of fighting, Russian forces have made little progress in capturing Donetsk Oblast, and it has started to suffer losses of ground in Luhansk Oblast as well.
In addition, Russian forces retreated from almost the whole of Kharkiv Oblast after being routed in a lightning Ukrainian counter-offensive at the beginning of September.
Also, Russian forces are currently being gradually being forced back from their bridgehead in the part of Kherson Oblast that they occupy on the west bank of the Dnipro River.
Earlier, the Russians were forced to withdraw from a strategic position, Snake Island in the Black Sea, which they had used as a base to control the western part of the Black Sea.
Read also: Amid Ukraine’s effective counter-offensive, Russia’s FM Lavrov proposes negotiations with Kyiv
As part of its operation to oust the Russian invasion force from the island, Ukraine sank the Moskva missile cruiser – the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the powerful radar of which was used by the Russian military to monitor the western Black Sea.
In August, Ukraine also launched a series of strikes on military targets in Crimea, a Ukrainian territory that has been under Russian military occupation since 2014. Ukraine struck an airbase and railway junction, prompting a panicked exodus of Russian citizens holidaying in the Ukrainian territory.
Ukraine also launched an attack on the Crimea bridge, which was illegally constructed by Russia between the Russian mainland and Ukraine’s Crimea. The Oct. 8 attack destroyed a section of bridge roadway and damaged one of the bridge’s rail lines.
Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
