Copyright aljazeera
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that Kyiv was ready for peace talks with Russia, but it would not withdraw its troops from additional territory first as Moscow has demanded. He also said that Ukrainian and European officials would meet at the end of the week to discuss the details of a ceasefire plan. “It is not a plan to end the war. First of all, a ceasefire is needed,” Zelenskyy said. “This is a plan to begin diplomacy… Our advisers will meet in the coming days; we agreed on Friday or Saturday. They will discuss the details of this plan.” The Ukrainian leader also urged United States President Donald Trump to pressure Chinese leader Xi Jinping to end his support for Russia when the two leaders meet later this week. He added that Ukraine needs European financial support to continue its defence against Russian forces for another two or three years. Germany’s economy minister, Katherina Reiche, told Reuters that the US government has provided written assurances that the German business of Russia’s Rosneft company would be exempt from new oil sanctions because the assets are no longer under Russian control. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin acknowledges Trump’s statements urging other countries to stop buying Russian oil, but that Russia’s partners will make their own decisions on whether to continue buying its energy products. Peskov also claimed that Russia cannot assess the status of peace negotiations with Ukraine because Kyiv has put them on hold, and is unwilling to answer questions posed by Russia. Many Indian refiners have paused new orders for Russian oil since the US’s latest sanctions on Moscow, according to Reuters, but the state-run Indian Oil said it would not stop buying Russian oil as long as it is complying with sanctions. “Russian crude is not sanctioned. It is the entities and the shipping lines which have got sanctions,” Anuj Jain, Indian Oil’s finance director, said. “Today, if somebody comes to me with a non-sanctioned entity, and the cap is being complied with, and the shipping is OK, then I will continue to buy it,” he said. The Indian state-owned warplane maker Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd said on Tuesday that it signed an initial agreement to build civil commuter aircraft with the United Aircraft Corporation, a Russian aerospace firm subject to Western sanctions.
