Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Thursday and set out "precise demands" for a peace deal, according to an Erdogan spokesman. Ibrahim Kalin, the Turkish leader's chief adviser, told the BBC's John Simpson that the first four demands would be "not too difficult" for Ukraine to meet, including an agreement to become a neutral country and undergo a disarmament process. Kalin told Simpson, however, that a second set of demands would require face-to-face negotiations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Simpson says Kalin, who was on the call with Putin, provided less detail about the second set of demands, but hinted that they would involve Ukraine giving up territory controlled by pro-Russia separatists in the east of the country and formally accepting that Crimea, which Russia seized in 2014, is now Russian territory. Still, the demands scarcely seem worth the "violence, bloodshed and destruction which Russia has visited on Ukraine," Simpson says.
While both side have reported progress in talks this week, Zelensky said early Friday that he would not discuss Ukraine's negotiation tactics, the AP reports. "Working more in silence than on television, radio, or on Facebook,” he said. “I consider it the right way.” Zelensky thanked President Biden for the additional military aid. He said that when Russia invaded on Feb. 24, it was expecting a victory as easy as in 2014, when it seized Crimea without a fight, but it "didn’t know what we had for defense or how we prepared to meet the blow.” Russia's assault on Ukrainian cities continued Friday, with shells hitting cities including Kyiv and the western city of Lviv, where missiles hit facilities near the airport. (More Russia-Ukraine war stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
