Vladimir Putin has given up on peace talks with Ukraine as he wants to seize as much land as he can for Russia, according to Kremlin insiders.
The three insiders claimed that the Russian president wanted to grab territory because he felt negotiations had reached a ‘dead end’, The Financial Times reported.
One insider said: ‘There was hope for a deal. Putin was going back and forth. He needs to find a way to come out of this a winner.’
‘Putin sincerely believes in the nonsense he hears on [Russian] television and he wants to win big,’ another insider added.
A third said he wouldn’t sign anything after the humiliation caused by the sinking of the Moskva.
A senior member of the Ukrainian delegation, Rustem Umirov, said: ‘We continue the negotiation process. Primarily — to save more lives of our people.’
‘We will use all the political and diplomatic efforts to stop this bloodshed. But there are red lines we will never cross. Ukraine will never give up its people and its territories,’ he told The Times.
It comes as officials in the embattled Ukrainian city of Mariupol say a new ‘200-yard mass grave’ has been identified north of the city that could contain hundreds of bodies.
Mayor Vadym Boychenko said authorities are trying to estimate the number of victims in the grave about six miles north of Mariupol.
This would be the third after satellite photos released over the last few days have shown what appear to be images of other mass graves.
On Saturday, chilling satellite photos revealed a second mass grave near Mariupol – as Russian forces continued to pummel the last 2,000 Ukrainian defenders trapped in a steelworks in the city.
The photos from Maxar Technologies showed the site at a cemetery in the town of Vynohradne. It has several newly dug parallel trenches measuring about 131 feet long, Maxar said in a statement.
Volodymyr Zelensky warned Vladimir Putin that if he tried to build a Nazi-style ‘millennial Reich’ he would ‘lose’.
Vladimir Putin has given up on peace talks with Ukraine as he wants to seize as much land as he can for Russia, according to Kremlin insiders
A volunteer places the stretcher carrying Klavidia, 91, on the ground before boarding a train at a train station in Pokrovsk
Smoke rises above a plant of Azovstal Iron and Steel Works during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol
People watch as a residential building burns following a Russian bombardment in Kharkiv
Dead bodies wait to be identified outside a morgue in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv
It comes as officials in the embattled Ukrainian city of Mariupol say a new ‘200-yard mass grave’ (pictured) has been identified north of the city that could contain hundreds of bodies
Emergency management specialists and volunteers remove the debris of a theatre building destroyed in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol
In his latest telegram broadcast, the Ukrainian president said: ‘Russia can spend enormous resources to support the war and even to counter the entire free world. It can take away from its people everything that could develop Russia, and direct its potential to destroy the lives of neighbours.
‘But the lessons of history are well-known. If you are going to build a millennial Reich, you will lose. If you are going to destroy neighbours, you will lose. If you want to restore an old empire, you will lose. And if you went against Ukrainians, you will lose.’
He continued: ‘It’s obvious that every day and especially today when the third month of our resistance has started, everyone in Ukraine is concerned about the peace, when it will be all over, when and what will be the victory for Ukraine. There is a simple answer to this question, but at the same time there isn’t.
‘When victory comes, everyone will feel it, when peace comes, everyone will see it. But in order it make it happen and happen sooner, we must think not about when and what it will be. We must think every day about how to make the presence of occupiers at our land even more unbearable.
‘Ukraine is ready for peace. It was ready even when the war continued in the Donbas. It’s still ready now when Russian invasion has become large-scale. But in order to make Russia seek peace, every Ukrainian men and women must fight, must defend the freedom. Because every day of the fight will add years and years to the peaceful life after this war, after our victory.
‘In two months a global anti-war coalition has been formed. Sanctions that have taken away its future were imposed against Russia. Ukraine is receiving support from dozens of countries, including the support with weapons, finances, necessary goods and direct political support. We have accelerated our way to the European Union.’
Mariupol has been decimated by fierce fighting over the past two months. The capture of the city would deprive Ukraine of a vital port and allow Moscow to establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014.
This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows a closer view of new graves being dug at a cemetery near Vynohradne, approximately 12 kilometers east of Mariupol, Ukraine
The site at a cemetery in the town of Vynohradne has several newly dug parallel trenches measuring about 40 meters (131 feet) long, Maxar said in a statement
On Thursday, Maxar released photos of what appeared to be rows upon rows of more than 200 freshly dug mass graves next to a cemetery in the town of Manhush, outside Mariupol. That prompted Ukrainian accusations that the Russians are trying to conceal the slaughter of civilians in the city.
‘This confirms again that the occupiers arrange the collection, burial and cremation of dead residents in every district of the city,’ Andryushchenko said on the Telegram messaging app.
The Ukrainians estimated that the graves seen in the photos released Thursday could hold 9,000 bodies. The Kremlin did not respond to the satellite pictures.
Meanwhile, Russian forces have resumed air strikes on and are trying to storm the Azovstal steel works where Ukraine’s remaining forces in Mariupol are holding out, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said on Saturday.
‘The enemy is trying to strangle the final resistance of the defenders of Mariupol in the Azovstal area,’ Arestovych said on national television.
Fresh attempts to evacuate civilians from the city on Saturday failed, an aide to Mariupol’s mayor revealed.
On Thursday, Maxar released photos of what appeared to be rows upon rows of more than 200 freshly dug mass graves next to a cemetery in the town of Manhush, outside Mariupol