{"id":1404022,"date":"2022-03-28T08:15:45","date_gmt":"2022-03-28T12:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1404022"},"modified":"2022-03-28T08:17:20","modified_gmt":"2022-03-28T12:17:20","slug":"ukraine-says-russia-wants-to-split-nation-in-two-calls-for-additional-arms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ukraine-says-russia-wants-to-split-nation-in-two-calls-for-additional-arms\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine Says Russia Wants to Split Nation in Two, Calls for Additional Arms"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fukraine-says-russia-wants-to-split-nation-in-two-calls-for-additional-arms%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1404022&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>LVIV, Ukraine (Reuters) \u2013     Ukraine is willing to become neutral and compromise over the status of the eastern Donbass region as part of a peace deal, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday, even as another top Ukrainian official accused Russia of aiming to carve the country in two. <\/p>\n<p>Zelenskiy took his message directly to Russian journalists in a video call that the Kremlin pre-emptively warned Russian media not to report, saying any agreement must be guaranteed by third parties and put to a referendum.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSecurity guarantees and neutrality, non-nuclear status of our state. We are ready to go for it,\u201d he said, speaking in Russian.<\/p>\n<p>But even as Turkey is set to host talks this week, Ukraine\u2019s head of military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, said Russian President Vladimir Putin was aiming to seize the eastern part of Ukraine.  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn fact, it is an attempt to create North and South Korea in Ukraine,\u201d he said, referring to the division of Korea after World War Two. Zelenskiy has urged the West to give Ukraine tanks, planes and missiles to help fend off Russian forces. <\/p>\n<p>In a call with Putin on Sunday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan agreed to hold talks this week in Istanbul and called for a ceasefire and better humanitarian conditions, his office said. Ukrainian and Russian negotiators confirmed that in-person talks would take place. <\/p>\n<p>Top American officials sought on Sunday to clarify that the United States does not have a policy of regime change in Russia, after President Joe Biden said at the end of a speech in Poland on Saturday that Putin \u201ccannot remain in power\u201d. <\/p>\n<p>U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Biden had simply meant Putin could not be \u201cempowered to wage war\u201d against Ukraine or anywhere else.<\/p>\n<p>After more than four weeks of conflict, Russia has failed to seize any major Ukrainian city and signalled on Friday it was scaling back its ambitions to focus on securing the Donbass region, where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting the Ukrainian army for the past eight years. <\/p>\n<p>A local leader in the self-proclaimed Luhansk People\u2019s Republic said on Sunday the region could soon hold a referendum on joining Russia, just as happened in Crimea after Russia seized the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>Crimeans voted overwhelmingly to break with Ukraine and join Russia \u2014 a vote that much of the world refused to recognise.<\/p>\n<p>Budanov predicted Ukraine\u2019s army would repel Russian forces by launching a guerrilla warfare offensive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen there will be one relevant scenario left for the Russians, how to survive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Ukraine\u2019s foreign ministry spokesperson also dismissed talk of any referendum in eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll fake referendums in the temporarily occupied territories are null and void and will have no legal validity,\u201d Oleg Nikolenko told Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018CRUEL AND SENSELESS\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Moscow says the goals for what Putin calls a \u201cspecial military operation\u201d include demilitarising and \u201cdenazifying\u201d its neighbour. Ukraine and its Western allies call this a pretext for unprovoked invasion.<\/p>\n<p>Ukraine has described previous negotiations, some of which have taken place in Russian ally Belarus, as \u201cvery difficult\u201d. <\/p>\n<p>The invasion has devastated several Ukrainian cities, caused a major humanitarian crisis and displaced an estimated 10 million people, nearly a quarter of Ukraine\u2019s population.<\/p>\n<p>Tatyana Manyek, who crossed the Danube by ferry into Romania on Sunday with other refugees, said people in her home city of Odesa were \u201cvery afraid\u201d but she would have stayed were it not for her daughter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt would be very difficult to provide the child with basic living conditions. That\u2019s why we decided to leave,\u201d she said, clutching a pet dog in her arms.<\/p>\n<p>In his Sunday blessing, Pope Francis called for an end to the \u201ccruel and senseless\u201d conflict.<\/p>\n<p>CALL FOR WEAPONS<\/p>\n<p>Zelenskiy demanded in a late-night television address on Saturday that Western nations hand over military hardware that was \u201cgathering dust\u201d in stockpiles, saying his nation needed just 1% of NATO\u2019s aircraft and 1% of its tanks.<\/p>\n<p>Western nations have given Ukraine anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles as well as small arms and protective equipment, without offering heavy armour or planes.<\/p>\n<p>Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Vadym Denysenko said  Russia had started destroying Ukrainian fuel and food storage centres. Appearing to confirm that, Russia said its missiles had wrecked a fuel deposit on Saturday as well as a military repair plant near the western city of Lviv.<\/p>\n<p>Ukraine was mounting small counter-offensive actions as Russian forces try to encircle its forces in eastern Ukraine, a Ukrainian presidential advisor said.<\/p>\n<p>The United Nations has confirmed 1,119 civilian deaths and 1,790 injuries across Ukraine but says the real toll is likely to be higher. Ukraine said on Sunday 139 children had been killed and more than 205 wounded so far in the conflict.<\/p>\n<p>Ukraine and Russia agreed two \u201chumanitarian corridors\u201d to evacuate civilians from frontline areas on Sunday, including allowing people to leave by car from the southern city of Mariupol, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.<\/p>\n<p>The encircled port, located between Crimea and eastern areas held by Russian-backed separatists, has been devastated by weeks of heavy bombardment. Thousands of residents are sheltering in basements with scarce water, food, medicine or power.<\/p>\n<p> (Reporting by Reuters journalists in Mariupol, Natalia Zinets and Maria Starkova in Lviv, Jarrett Renshaw in Warsaw and Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Guy Faulconbridge in London and Matthias Williams; Writing by Aidan Lewis, Crispian Balmer, Lincoln Feast and Lawrence Hurley; Editing by William Mallard, Gareth Jones, Frances Kerry and Daniel Wallis)<\/p>\n<div id=\"gallery-1\" class=\"gallery galleryid-1077820 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-large\">\n<figure class=\"gallery-item\">\n<div class=\"gallery-icon landscape\">\n\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.metro.us\/ukraine-willing-to-be\/rescuers-work-at-a-site-of-fuel-storage-facilities-hit-2\/\"><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text gallery-caption\" id=\"gallery-1-1077883\">\n\t\t\t\tRescuers work at a site of fuel storage facilities hit by cruise missiles in Lviv<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"gallery-item\">\n<div class=\"gallery-icon landscape\">\n\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.metro.us\/ukraine-willing-to-be\/rescuers-work-at-a-site-of-fuel-storage-facilities-hit-3\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXNPEI2Q02R-BASEIMAGE.jpg\" class=\"crop-center attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1077884\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXNPEI2Q02R-BASEIMAGE.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXNPEI2Q02R-BASEIMAGE-700x394-1.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXNPEI2Q02R-BASEIMAGE-768x432-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXNPEI2Q02R-BASEIMAGE-384x216-1.jpg 384w\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text gallery-caption\" id=\"gallery-1-1077884\">\n\t\t\t\tRescuers work at a site of fuel storage facilities hit by cruise missiles in Lviv<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"gallery-item\">\n<div class=\"gallery-icon landscape\">\n\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.metro.us\/ukraine-willing-to-be\/russias-invasion-of-ukraine-in-lviv-20\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXNPEI2Q00U-BASEIMAGE.jpg\" class=\"crop-center attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1077821\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXNPEI2Q00U-BASEIMAGE.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXNPEI2Q00U-BASEIMAGE-700x466-1.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXNPEI2Q00U-BASEIMAGE-768x512-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXNPEI2Q00U-BASEIMAGE-384x256-1.jpg 384w\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text gallery-caption\" id=\"gallery-1-1077821\">\n\t\t\t\tRussia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, in Lviv<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"gallery-item\">\n<div class=\"gallery-icon landscape\">\n\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.metro.us\/ukraine-willing-to-be\/russias-invasion-of-ukraine-in-lviv-22\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXNPEI2Q00X-BASEIMAGE.jpg\" class=\"crop-center attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1077825\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXNPEI2Q00X-BASEIMAGE.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXNPEI2Q00X-BASEIMAGE-700x466-1.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXNPEI2Q00X-BASEIMAGE-768x512-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXNPEI2Q00X-BASEIMAGE-384x256-1.jpg 384w\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text gallery-caption\" id=\"gallery-1-1077825\">\n\t\t\t\tRussia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, in Lviv<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LVIV, Ukraine (Reuters) \u2013 Ukraine is willing to become neutral and compromise over the status of the eastern Donbass region as part of a peace deal, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":489,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1404022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/489"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1404022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1404022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1404022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1404022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}