Russia Now Says It Expects 'Unconditional Capitulation Of Zelensky Regime' Before Peace
Ukrainian cities and especially the country's energy infrastructure have been getting pounded by intensified Russian missile and airstrikes over the past several days and weeks, leading to widespread power outages across the country.
Russia's defense ministry said Friday, "Russian troops delivered 48 precision strikes at Ukrainian energy and military-industrial sites, army and mercenaries’ deployment areas over the past week in the special military operation in Ukraine."
This included a Thursday morning attack which destroyed one of Ukraine’s largest power plants in the Kyiv region. "The goal of the strike were achieved. All the targets were destroyed," Moscow said. Ukrainian authorities are urging those with power to preserve and save their energy usage as much as possible.
President Putin this month said this is a necessary response to Ukraine's own cross-border attacks on Russia's energy sector, which has been devastating of late, resulting in a significant drop in Russia's gasoline production.
But lost in the global geopolitical headlines, which have been largely driven by the Israel-Gaza war and a showdown over the coming expected Iranian attack on Israel, was the shock statement by Russia's ambassador to the United Nations this week.
During Thursday's UN Security Council meeting, Vasily Nebenzya, the Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations, said that Moscow now expects the "unconditional capitulation" of the Zelensky government.
Ambassador Nebenzya told the body:
"This is how it will go down in history - as an inhuman and hateful regime of terrorists and Nazis who betrayed the interest of their people and sacrificed it for Western money and for Zelensky and his closest circle.In these conditions, attempts by the head of the Kiev regime to promote his formula and convene summits in support of the Kiev regime cause only confusion.
Very soon the only topic for any international meetings on Ukraine will be the unconditional capitulation of the Kiev regime.
He emphasized in conclusion to these provocative remarks, "I advise you all to prepare for this in advance."
The increasingly effective Russian strike campaign in Ukraine threatens to constrain Ukraine’s long-term warfighting capabilities and set operational conditions for Russia to achieve significant gains on the battlefield. https://t.co/7t1bLVca6I pic.twitter.com/MNrpU0HjrE
— Institute for the Study of War (@TheStudyofWar) April 12, 2024
This firm statement appears part of Russia's continuing reaction to the planned Switzerland-hosted international Ukraine peace conference, which the Swiss government formally announced as set for June 15-16 at the lakeside Bürgenstock resort near Lucerne.
As we underscored previously, while over 100 nations are to be invited, the one country that can determine the final outcome of the war has not been invited: Russia. Its foreign minister Sergey Lavrov has characterized the conference as a "road to nowhere" and a sign that the West is not sincere about a willingness to pursue real peace negotiations.
"That this is a road to nowhere, to put it mildly, is obvious to any normal political observer. Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin once again made our position clear and understandable during the meeting with Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko," Lavrov explained.
And given that Russia's ambassador to the UN just declared that the end of the Ukraine war will be conditioned on nothing less than Ukraine's total surrender, the prospect for peace negotiations is now further away than ever. And all the while Europe is still scrambling to find more weapons to ship to Zelensky's military.