Kremlin: Russia has no choice but to continue fighting

“The priority for us is to achieve the goals that we have set in the special military operation in Ukraine. At this point, those goals can only be achieved through military means,” the official said.

Russian soldiers sit on a T-90M tank. Photo: Sputnik

The statement was made in response to an article by former German diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger, published in Der Tagesspiegel over the weekend, in which Ischinger called on Western leaders to “think about a peace process now” and set up a special political contact group for the Ukraine crisis.

Under Mr Ischinger’s proposal, the contact group would be led by the US, UK, Germany and France, along with other countries and international organisations, including NATO. Its task would be to prepare a ceasefire agreement and drafts that would form the backbone of the post-conflict period. It would work alongside the Ramstein group, which provides Western military aid to Ukraine. Mr Ischinger stressed that the new initiative would not put pressure on Ukraine to negotiate.

The former German diplomat also suggested a list of questions the group would ask itself, including: “Should a ceasefire be endorsed by the UN Security Council?”, “Should there be a demilitarized buffer zone in Ukraine?”, and “Should the people of Crimea hold a referendum to decide who they belong to?”.

Ukraine has said that Russia must return the territories it holds as a precondition for peace talks. In 2022, Ukrainian President Zelensky signed into law a decree of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine banning any negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. For its part, Russia claims that the Ukrainian government has made peace talks impossible and that Kiev has adopted its position at the request of the United States, aiming to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia./.