Russian President Vladimir Putin says talks with Ukraine have reached dead end

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that peace talks with Ukraine reached a dead end. Speaking alongside his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko at a news conference, President Putin vowed that he will not stop military operations in Ukraine until Moscow succeeds. He added that until an agreement is reached, the military operation will continue until the full completion of tasks.

The Russian President dismissed as fake reports of hundreds of dead bodies of civilians in the town of Bucha outside Kyiv. Ukraine has accused Russia for the massacre in Bucha. However, Russia has denied the allegations and said that it was Ukrainian propaganda. President Putin said Kyiv had derailed peace talks by staging what he said were fake claims of Russian war crimes and by demanding security guarantees to cover the whole of Ukraine.

However, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said although negotiations are extremely difficult, they will continue. Meanwhile, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the apparent capture of Viktor Medvedchuk, a pro-Kremlin politician who was living in Ukraine.