Ukraine-Russia war: Zelensky calls Putin ‘slave to war’ at Munich conference and demands EU accession date

Drone strikes killed at least one person in Ukraine and one in Russia yesterday, officials said, as the two sides prepared for another round of talks in Geneva on Tuesday aimed at ending the war.

An elderly woman died after a Russian drone struck a residential building in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, Ukraine’s state emergency service said.

In Russia, a civilian was killed when a Ukrainian drone hit a car in the Bryansk border region, governor Alexander Bogomaz said.

Russia-backed authorities in the partially occupied Luhansk region said a Ukrainian airstrike wounded 15 people in a village there.

The exchanges followed a Ukrainian missile strike on the Russian border city of Belgorod on Friday that killed two people and injured five, according to regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Volodymyr Zelensky has questioned how proposals for a free economic or security zone in Ukraine would work in practice, warning of serious risks if Russia were to test any foreign presence on the ground.

The Ukrainian president told the Associated Press in Munich that if foreign troops were deployed to patrol such a zone and Vladimir Putin chose to provoke them, their withdrawal could open the door to a “big occupation” and heavy losses.

“If Putin is given any opportunity for victory we don’t know what he will do next,” Zelensky said.

He described the model as carrying “big risks” both for Ukraine and for any country that agreed to guarantee its security, though he said he was prepared to discuss it as a potential compromise in exchange for support to rebuild the country.

Zelensky also said Moscow would have to accept monitoring of any ceasefire and return about 7,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war in exchange for more than 4,000 Russian prisoners held by Ukraine.

Russia’s decision to replace the head of its negotiating team ahead of the next round of US-brokered talks could be aimed at delaying progress, Volodymyr Zelensky said..

The Ukrainian president said he was surprised by Moscow’s move before the upcoming negotiations in Geneva.

He also said Russian opposition to any foreign troop presence in Ukraine indicated Vladimir Putin wanted to retain the option of attacking again in future.

During negotiations, Russian officials have insisted that Ukraine give up more territory in the east to end the war. Zelensky rejected that demand, calling it “a little bit crazy” to suggest Ukraine withdraw from its own land or exchange it.

Thousands of Ukrainians have been killed defending the Donbas region, he said, noting that around 200,000 people still live there and it would not be acceptable to effectively hand them over to Russia.

Russia is suffering “crazy losses” in Ukraine, tallying around 65,000 ⁠soldiers over the last two months, NATO secretary general Mark ⁠Rutte ​said on Saturday ⁠at the Munich Security ⁠Conference.

Separately, he told ​a ⁠media roundtable ‌that the NATO alliance was strong enough ‌that Russia would ‌not currently try to attack it.

“We will ⁠win every fight with Russia if they attack us now, and we have to make sure in two, four, six years that same is still the case,” he said.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said he met with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss the country’s security and ways to deepen defence and economic partnerships.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said he was surprised that Moscow had replaced the head of its negotiating team before another round of US-brokered talks and suggested the move was deliberately aimed at delaying negotiations.

The talks take place against a backdrop of continued fighting along the roughly 1,250-km (750-mile) front line, relentless Russian bombardment of civilian areas of Ukraine and the country’s power grid, and Kyiv’s almost daily long-range drone attacks on war-related assets on Russian soil.

During negotiations, Russian officials have insisted Ukraine give up more territory in the east of the country to end the war. But Mr Zelensky told The Associated Press that it was “a little bit crazy” to suggest Ukraine withdraw from its own territory or exchange it.

Thousands of Ukrainians have been killed defending the country’s Donbas region, he said, pointing out that 200,000 people also live there and it would not be acceptable to effectively hand them over to Russia.

Mr Zelensky also questioned how the concept of a free economic zone would work.

Imagine, he said, if foreign soldiers patrolled the zone and “Putin provoked them and they left”. In that case, he said, there could be a “big occupation” of Ukraine and a lot of losses.

If Mr Putin is given any opportunity for victory “we don’t know what he will do next”, Mr Zelensky said.