Ukraine braces for heavy battles as Putin says Russia carving out ‘buffer zone” • FRANCE 24

Ukraine braces for heavy battles as Putin says Russia carving out ‘buffer zone” • FRANCE 24

for more we can speak to Alexander Filipino a political analyst joining us from Villas hello to you Alexander um on the one hand we have Ukraine’s president saying morale is low that there are not enough troops on the other hand we have Vladimir Putin who says he just wants to create a buffer zone given these public declarations from Ukraine’s president is there a risk that Russia might try to push further into Ukraine rather than just creating a buffer zone it seems like Russia w to U push further because of course President Putin many times have said that Russia has no plans to take uh Ukrainian cities at the beginning of the war uh right just a day before the war started President Putin The fullscale Invasion started in 2022 President Putin said that Russia has no plans to take Ukrainian territory it only wants to freeze some territory on the eastern part of Ukraine so now President Putin is saying that Russia has no plans to take har keev as of today that’s what he said when he was in uh Beijing so um maybe we should take note of that as of today they really want to create this uh so-called buffer zone or as they call it sanitary Zone uh in response to the shelling of belgrad region Russian city of belgrad by the Ukrainian Armed Forces but uh if Russia can move forward most most probably they will take this opportunity to move forward especially since in that exact interview president zalinski said that now Ukraine only has about 25% of what Ukraine needs to defend its territory so Russia knows it and if Russia knows it probably they will try to push forward yeah and if Ukraine is outgunned and outmanned what can it do to try to slow the Russian Advance first of all Ukraine needs the help of um Western allies of course that that help from the United States and they need it as fast as possible in order to stop Russian offensive of course also one of the opportunities are talks with the Russian side but uh we know that uh President Putin also in that interview in while his trip to China he said that the Istanbul agreements must be the basis for negotiation process on Ukraine and that Russia according to President Putin is ready for negotiations and uh according again to President Putin the attempt to inflict a strategic defeat on the battlefield is failing so Russia will not tolerate an attempt to impose an ultimatum or something that uh Ukrainian how Ukraine sees the end of the war but uh as we know Russian president has said and repeatedly said that they will not move out of the territory that they consider to be Russian territory even those new regions that are according to this new Russian Constitution are a part of Russian territory and of course for Ukraine for Vladimir zilinsky and for Ukrainian officials that that those territories including including Crimea including donbas region are officially Ukrainian territory that is uh of course and it’s accepted by the International Community so maybe a way to move forward is to sit down and talk but now I I don’t see any way of um sitting down at the table because two sides see the end of the war in absolutely different ways yeah and when you listen to Ukrainian troops on the front line they’re desperate for help to arrive as quickly as possible there’s this new mobilization law going into effect today um do you think it’ll make any changes and and when would those changes be uh visible on the battlefield uh of course we must see some changes not necessarily we will see them soon uh President zinski signed this new decree on mobilization and a decree on mobilization of convicts also what we’ve been seeing in Russia also now some um there’s big difference uh in Ukraine only some categories of conf convicts and prisoners in Ukraine will be able to voluntary go and serve in the Army only during martial law and eligible are only those who have committed offenses of light and medium severity and those who have no more than three years left before the end of their sentence it is a big difference uh in comparison to Russia because we are seeing on Russian front lines that those who are going to fight for Russia those convicts those Russian convicts are those who are supposed to be in prison for 10 or more than 10 years so uh those prisoners if they agree to sign a contract Ukrainian Justice Ministry said earlier that there will be potentially 10,000 to 20,000 convicts in Ukraine who could be mobilized for that contract Service but probably we will see them only around Autumn because again in comparison to Russia there is big difference they can be granted parole but final decision can only be made by the court in Russia prisoners sign a contract and they go to the front lines in Ukraine this won’t work this way uh in that interview the Ukrainian President also repeated please to have um the West send a defense fighter jet something he’s made many calls for and yet uh his allies abroad dragging their feet on that do you think they’re going to get any closer to maybe offering that kind of help as Russia makes this push and possibly as uh zilinsky said maybe even a second wave there are possibilities of a few waves of Russian offensive and of course Ukraine needs um needs that help need every any kind of help that Ukraine can get but it looks like European leaders are now moving more towards the idea of a ceasefire or more towards the idea of somehow coming to the table and negotiating so it looks like they will push more in that side and uh but at the same time uh in order not to let Ukraine lose of course they must give more help to Ukraine as of now as we’ve already said only 25% of the American help arrived in Ukraine so maybe as more arrives Ukraine will feel stronger and there will be more opportunities and more possibilities to stop Russian offensive and so that’s how maybe Ukraine will not need that much help from the European allies uh major NATO anniversary coming up in a a few more weeks you think Vladimir Putin wants to send a a big message before then uh President Putin always wants to send a big message and I think the visit to China is of course the that big message that President Putin wanted to send because if we look at the uh agreements that were signed in China there was nothing serious everything about agriculture something about tourism media cooperation nothing about military cooperation strategic IC cooperation or things like that but if we look at the photographs at the videos how Russian delegation was met in Beijing and what they were doing how long they were staying what a huge group of Russian governmental officials was there we can see that this is a show this is a show and most probably not for Russian audiences but for European audiences for Europeans and Americans to see that Russia and China work together but this is actually just an act because if we look at the pictures yes they are impressive but let’s look at the documents the documents that were signed are just words there is no no exact uh plan no no exact plans no exact agreements those Agreements are not in the Strategic or military field so this I think that was the show that President Putin wanted to put uh before the anniversary and before the meeting of collect West as Putin puts it yeah so some doubts about how deep that no limits friendship really runs Alexander thank you for your time Alexander Filipino speaking to us from vus

Kyiv struggles to boost troop numbers after Russia launched a new offensive that some fear could close in on Ukraine’s second-largest city. Russian President said on Friday (May 19) that the Russian push aims to create “a buffer zone” rather than capturing Kharkiv for now. For more, FRANCE 24’s William Hilderbrandt is joined by Alexandra Filippenko, a political analyst. “Ukraine needs the help of Western allies in order to stop Russian offensive”, she said.
#Russia #Ukraine #war

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