Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia this Monday, March 23, of preparing to place long-range drone control stations in Belarus, promising to respond “accordingly”.
After a meeting with Oleh Ivashchenko, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, Zelensky stated that Kiev has “clear information that Russia plans to deploy more ground control stations for long-range drones in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, as well as four stations in Belarus”.
“We will respond accordingly. I have instructed Oleh Ivashchenko to inform partners and media representatives about the data we may disclose”wrote Zelensky.
The Ukrainian President also said that Kiev has irrefutable evidence that Russia continues to provide intelligence information to the Iranian regime.
“Russia is using its own signals intelligence and electronic intelligence capabilities, as well as some of the data obtained through cooperation with partners in the Middle East”he stated on his Telegram account.
Also this Monday, in his daily message to the Ukrainian population, Zelensky lamented that the Americans are mainly focused on the war in Iran, after two days of negotiations between envoys from Kiev and Washington in Florida to put an end to the conflict in Ukraine.
While welcoming the holding of these negotiations, Zelensky lamented that “the situation around Iran” had been “the main focus of attention on the American side.”
For his part, the North American envoy, Steve Witkoff, considered that the talks on Saturday and today in Florida were “constructive”, in a message published on the social network X.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, with the argument of protecting pro-Russian separatist minorities in the east and “denazifying” the neighboring country, independent since 1991 – after the collapse of the Soviet Union – and which has been moving away from Moscow’s sphere of influence and moving closer to Europe and the West.
The war in Ukraine has already caused tens of thousands of deaths on both sides, and recent months have been marked by large-scale air strikes by Russia on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure, while Kiev’s forces have targeted, in drone offensives, military targets on Russian territory and on the Crimean peninsula, illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014.
On the diplomatic level, Russia has so far rejected any prolonged ceasefire and demands, to put an end to the conflict, that Ukraine cede four regions to it – Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporijia – in addition to the Crimean peninsula annexed in 2014, and renounce forever joining NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Western defense bloc).
These conditions – contained in the peace plan presented by US President Donald Trump to resolve the conflict – are considered unacceptable by Ukraine, which demands an unconditional 30-day ceasefire before entering into peace negotiations with Moscow and that its European allies provide solid guarantees that it will not be the target of attack again.
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