liveLIVE. War in Ukraine: Zelensky ready to compromise on Crimea



  • More than 3.5 million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the invasion by Russian armed forces. Some 100,000 civilians are still stuck in the major port city of Mariupol, where Russian tanks entered after weeks of shelling.
  • President Zelensky said he was ready to discuss with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin a “compromise” on Donbass and Crimea to “stop the war”, believing however that any compromise should be ratified by the Ukrainians by referendum.
  • Russian forces continued at the beginning of the week to bombard other Ukrainian cities: kyiv, Kharkiv, Odessa, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv… In the Ukrainian capital, where the curfew introduced on Monday is supposed to end this Wednesday morning , the advance of the Russian troops seems frozen.
  • Westerners will announce new sanctions against Russia and strengthen existing ones. Present Thursday in Brussels for three international summits, US President Joe Biden will announce joint action to strengthen Europe’s energy security and reduce its dependence on Russian gas.


08:55 – Russia will only use nuclear weapons in case of “existential threat”

Moscow will use nuclear weapons in Ukraine only in the event of an “existential threat” against Russia, according to the Kremlin spokesman. “We have an internal security doctrine, it is public, you can read there all the reasons for the use of nuclear weapons. And, if it is an existential threat to our country, then they can be used in accordance with our doctrine,” Dmitry Peskov told CNN International. Journalist Christiane Amanpour asked the Kremlin spokesperson to say whether he was “confident” or “convinced” that Russian President Vladimir Putin, to whom he is very close, would not use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

08:29 – A humanitarian convoy captured by the Russians

Three humanitarian corridors were to be opened on Tuesday between three localities near Mariupol and the city of Zaporozhye, 250 km to the northwest. But President Zelensky affirmed in the evening that “all our attempts, unfortunately, are reduced to nothing by the Russian occupiers. With bombardments or obvious terror”. “One of the humanitarian convoys was captured by the occupiers and on the agreed route, incidentally, near Mangush. Members of the National Emergency Service (SESU) and drivers are now being held captive. We are doing everything to free them and unblock the movement of the humanitarian convoy,” said the Head of State in his daily video.

08:03 – Towards new Western sanctions

The Ukrainian president must address the French and Japanese parliaments on Wednesday, as a prelude to a weekend of high diplomatic activity. The next day, a month to the day after the outbreak of the invasion, Westerners will meet in Brussels for summits of NATO, the G7 and the European Union. The key: new sanctions against Russia, according to the White House. US President Joe Biden will then travel to Poland, the country which hosts most of the 3.5 million Ukrainian refugees.

07:32 – Zelensky ready to talk Donbass and Crimea with Putin against the end of hostilities

On Wednesday night, Volodymyr Zelensky for the first time said he was open to trying to discuss anything that “upsets and displeases” Russia with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to “stop the war”, if he agrees to negotiate directly with him. The Ukrainian president says he is ready to “talk” about the issue of Crimea and Donbass, but with “security guarantees” beforehand, and warning that Ukraine would be “destroyed” before surrendering. Several sessions of negotiations between kyiv and Moscow have taken place face-to-face and by videoconference since the outbreak of the war, without result for the time being.

07:18 – Overpowered bombs hit Mariupol

On the 27th day of the conflict in Ukraine, two superpowered bombs hit Mariupol on Tuesday. The town hall of the port city could not give an immediate assessment. Residents who fled the besieged city described to the NGO Human Rights Watch “a freezing hell, with streets strewn with corpses and the rubble of destroyed buildings”, and thousands of people cut off from the world, holed up in basements. soils without water, food, electricity or communications.

07:07 – 100,000 people still stuck in the hell of Mariupol

Nearly a month after the start of the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces, around 100,000 people are still trapped under Russian bombs in besieged Mariupol. According to Ukrainian President Zelensky, these civilians are trapped in “inhuman conditions”, in the ruins of the city “under total siege, without food, without water, without medicine, under constant bombardment”.




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