Ceasefire in Ukraine not a good option – Russian diplomat
A senior Russian diplomat has said a ceasefire is not a good option at the moment, because it will give Ukrainian forces the chance to “regroup and to stage more provocations”.
Earlier today, Russia announced that it would be holding a ceasefire around the steelworks in the besieged city of Mariupol from 14:00 local time (11:00 GMT), to allow civilians to leave.
But Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said no agreement had been reached and called for written security guarantees.
Russia’s first deputy permanent representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, said Ukraine had claimed that there were some civilians in the Azovstal steel plant, where the last Ukrainian fighters in the city are holed up, but Ukrainian forces “did not let them go”.
He went on to say that Russia had not attacked residential areas in Odesa, Ukraine’s Black Sea port city, over the weekend.
On Saturday, Ukraine said that two missiles struck a military facility and two residential buildings in the city. But Polyanskiy said the residential buildings were hit by Ukraine air defences.
He went on to reject the comments made by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who said Russia had failed to achieve its aims in the invasion.
Polyanskiy said: “I don’t think we failed, frankly.” He added that Russia is conducting its “military operation” and it has “its own aims” and “its own strategies”.
