The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Kyiv’s position means Russia’s goals in Ukraine can only be achieved by military force, Russian state news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.
“We have to achieve our goals. Right now this is only possible by military means due to the current position of the Kyiv regime,” Peskov said.
Russia claims it is fighting in Ukraine to “liberate” Russian speakers in the eastern Donbas from what it has called a neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv.
Ukraine and the West say this is a baseless pretext put forward to justify a war of aggression and Moscow’s attempts to seize swathes of Ukrainian land.
Moscow has blamed Kyiv for a breakdown in talks about a ceasefire, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he will only consider peace settlements after Russian troops leave Ukrainian territory.
Meanwhile, Russia said it does not recognise the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the TASS news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Tuesday.
Peskov was asked about reports the ICC was expected to seek its first arrest warrants against Russian individuals in relation to the conflict in Ukraine shortly.
“We do not recognise this court, we do not recognise its jurisdiction,” TASS quoted Peskov as saying.
The prosecutor of the ICC is expected to ask a pre-trial judge to approve issuing warrants against several Russians for the abduction of children from Ukraine to Russia and the targeting of civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Monday.
via Reuters
