Russian President Vladimir Putin has cast doubt on peace talks with Ukraine after claiming the country will only consider talks once a weapons from the West have ran out./Reuters/Pavel Bednyakov.
TOP HEADLINES
• Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that 1,000 - 1,500 Russians were signing voluntary contracts to join the military every day.
• Putin added that he thought Ukraine might only be ready to discuss peace when it ran out of resources but that Kyiv would use a potential cessation of hostilities to rearm. READ MORE BELOW
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vetoed a parliamentary bill that sought to seal off mandatory asset declarations by officials from public view and had caused a public outcry.
• Kyiv carried out a drone strike on the city of Enerhodar near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant on Monday, Alexei Likhachev, the head of Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom, said on Tuesday.
• Ukraine's Antonov is expanding its drone making capacity, as the countries umbrella defense group diversifies its core cargo plane business in response to the war with Russia.
Putin has also claimed that between 1,000 and 1,500 Russian men were voluntary joining the army every day after being asked whether mandatory mobilization would be necessary./Reuters/Mikhail Metzel.
IN DEPTH
Putin says Ukraine will only discuss peace when weapons run out
Russian President Vladimir Putin says Ukraine was only likely to start peace talks when it ran out of resources and would use any potential cessation of hostilities to rearm again with Western help.
The conflict has sown devastation across swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine, killed or injured hundreds of thousands and triggered the biggest rupture in Russia's ties with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
Putin, speaking at an economic forum in Russia's Pacific port city of Vladivostok, said Ukraine's counteroffensive against Russian forces had so far failed and that the Ukrainian army had sustained heavy losses.
"I have the impression that they want to bite off as much as they can and then, when their resources are close to zero, to achieve a cessation of hostilities and start negotiations in order to replenish their resources and restore combat capability," Putin said.
The accusation is something that has also been leveled at Moscow by Ukraine's western allies.
Putin said many potential mediators had asked him if Russia was ready to stop fighting, but he said that Russia could hardly stop fighting when it was facing a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
For there to be any chance of talks, said Putin, Ukraine would first have to cancel its self-imposed legal ban on peace talks and explain what it wanted.
"Then we shall see," Putin said.
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