Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, on Friday criticised Ukraine’s suggested peace plan, stating that it is futile due to its inherent unacceptable concepts such as Moscow’s retreat from areas they have seized. He asserted during his chat with the Moscow daily Izvestia that unless fundamental changes were made to the peace summit, including Russia’s involvement, it would not prosper.
Lavrov dismissed the ‘peace formula’ proposed by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, highlighting that any well-verses politician from the likes of London or Washington would understand there could not be a single solution encapsulated by this formula.
He further rejected the plan’s specifics which demanded Russia to relinquish its control over previously seized territories, such as Crimea which it annexed in 2014, restoration of Ukraine’s borders as of 1991 post the Soviet era, and devising a strategy to hold Russia accountable for its actions in the 2022 invasion in February. Zelenskiy, however, refuses to negotiate with Moscow on any grounds other than the proposed peace plan.
Lavrov talked about his meeting with dignitaries and diplomats from Switzerland who had assured him of Russia’s involvement in the peace summit to be hosted by Bern under realistic conditions. Swiss officials were cited as saying they understand the integral role Russia plays in the resolution of the crisis and that nothing would be resolved without them.
Lavrov downplayed the US’s propositions to negotiate arms deals while keeping Ukraine conflict out of the equation, stating it to be nonsensical. He said it mirrored poorly on the foreign affairs management in Washington.
In a related incident, Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s power grid operator, revealed that the country’s infrastructure had been hit by a Russian missile and drone onslaught, damaging thermal and hydro power plants. This follows the widespread assaults which have inflicted severe disruption on Ukrainian facilities’ generation and transmission capability, forcing Kyiv to cease power exports and depend on imports.
Ukrenergo reported on the Telegram app that Russian forces launched another large-scale assault on energy infrastructures overnight, causing damage to thermal and hydroelectric power plants in both central and western parts of the nation. As a result, emergency shutdowns were enforced in Ukraine’s southeastern region of Dnipropetrovsk.
Ukrainian TV brought news in the early hours that sounds of explosions had been detected in the regions of Ivano-Frankivsk and Khmelnytskyi, along with the city of Dnipro, due to the sighting of Russian cruise missiles in Ukrainian skies.
Following Russia’s missile assaults on Ukraine, the Operational Command of the Polish military informed that Polish and associated aircraft had been mobilised in the early hours of Friday. It’s worth noting that the southeastern segment of Poland shares a border with Ukraine. This information was confirmed by Reuters.