EU’s Borrell says Russia has no interest in negotiating ceasefire in Ukraine for now

MADRID, March 24 (Reuters) – The Russian government has no interest in negotiating a ceasefire in Ukraine for now as its army has not reached its military goals, European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said on Thursday.

“Right now, Russia doesn’t want to sit and negotiate anything: what it wants is to occupy the ground,” Borrell said in an interview with Spanish TVE channel. “It wants to surround the coast to the border with Moldova and isolate Ukraine from the sea. It wants to negotiate in earnest only when it has secured a position of strength.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his troops into Ukraine on what he calls a “special military operation” to demilitarise and “denazify” Ukraine. Ukraine and the West say Putin launched an unprovoked war of aggression.

The European Union and its allies will keep on delivering military aid to the Ukrainian army, Borrell said.

“It is important because everything will be decided in the next 15 days,” he said. “What will make history is the capacity of Ukrainians to resist.”