Russia rejects Ukraine’s offer to end fighting: Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has criticized Russia's military campaign, saying the Kremlin has set a deadline for capturing the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine 15 times in the past four years, but has had to postpone it each time.

Zelensky made the remarks in a video message on Monday (June 29). Through this, he also responded to statements made by Russian President Vladimir Putin a day earlier. Al Arabiya reported.

In a television interview on Sunday, Putin claimed that Ukraine had made a proposal to stop long-range attacks and reduce the intensity of the fighting. However, he rejected the proposal, saying it was just a tactic to reduce pressure on Kiev's military.

Zelensky said that Putin's statement proved that he was disconnected from the realities of ordinary Russian citizens. The damage to Russia's oil industry due to Ukrainian drone attacks has caused fuel shortages in various parts of the country and people are having to stand in long lines at petrol pumps.

He said that despite being an oil-producing country, which is often called a 'gas station', Russia is now suffering from an energy crisis. This is a direct consequence of the war. This is just one example of many such consequences.

Zelensky claimed that Ukraine is responding not with terrorism targeting civilians, but with precise military strikes.

He also said that the Russian political leadership is still obsessed with the goal of occupying Donbas. However, if Russia does not stop the war, then the deadline for completely occupying Donbas will have to be postponed again.

After the start of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia first tried to occupy the capital Kiev. When that attempt failed, they withdrew their troops and intensified their operations in the eastern Donbas region.

Russia currently controls the entire Luhansk region and large parts of the Donetsk and Zaporizhia regions. Although Moscow's forces are gradually advancing west of Donetsk. Ukrainian officials claim that the pace of that advance has slowed down significantly in recent times. At the same time, Ukraine has increased its medium- and long-range drone strikes.

Earlier this month, Zelensky wrote an open letter to Putin calling for a face-to-face meeting. However, he did not directly comment on the new ceasefire proposal that Putin has mentioned.

Zelensky said that Ukraine has already made several proposals to end the war, but Russia has rejected them each time.

He said that Russian citizens who have not yet been conscripted into the army and are currently standing in fuel lines should think now about what awaits them.