Russia-Ukraine conflict: Moscow says peace in Ukraine will be on its terms

Russia continues to bombard Ukraine in its unprovoked assault that is moving towards its fifth month. A senior Kremlin official said that should there be peace in Ukraine, it would be on Russia’s terms.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who now serves in its security council, claimed that peace in Ukraine could only be achieved on Russia’s terms. Medvedev’s comments come as Russian forces continue to bombard cities in Ukraine, killing civilians despite insisting that it was striking military targets.

“Russia will achieve all its goals. There will be peace – on our terms,” said Medvedev, who has increasingly criticized the West since Russia invaded Ukraine back in February.

The Kremlin previously said there is no time limit in its continued assault on Ukraine, which Kyiv and the West have deemed to be unprovoked and designed to seize territory and erase Ukraine’s identity.

Despite the defiant tone that Moscow is striking, Ukraine’s General Army Staff said Tuesday that Russian forces are preoccupied with shoring up their positions in occupied Ukrainian territories and have mounted limited assaults on the ground that have been unsuccessful, in different locations.

The United Kingdom’s defense ministry which backs Ukraine, said Thursday last week that it believes Russian forces are unable to advance because of changes in personnel. The ministry said Russian forces are facing a resource crisis.

The ministry explained that Russian forces have to decide how much military hardware and personnel it will commit to meet its goal of completely seizing the eastern Ukrainian region as well as the occupied southern Ukrainian territory in the event of a Ukrainian counter-attack.

”While Russia may still make further territorial gains, their operational tempo and rate of advance are likely to be very slow without a significant operational pause for reorganization and refit,” said the ministry.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also expected to cite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a reason for governments to cooperate on the international supply chain, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In a virtual meeting on Wednesday, Blinken is also expected to stress the need to reduce dependence on petroleum and natural gas from unreliable countries and instead turn towards clean energy.