US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on Sunday (local time) said that US had “very credible” reports of war crimes in Ukraine, even as Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a phone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Russia’s military operation in Ukraine can be suspended only if Kyiv ceased military actions and fulfilled Moscow’s demands. The Russian President also told French President Emmanuel Macron over phone on Sunday that he was not against a trilateral meeting among Russia, Ukraine and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in a third country or via teleconference, but not in Chernobyl in Ukraine.
In an interview with CNN, Secretary Blinken said, “We’ve seen very credible reports of deliberate attacks on civilians, which would constitute a war crime. We’ve seen very credible reports about the use of certain weapons.” “And what we’re doing right now is documenting all this, putting it all together, looking at it and making sure that as people and the appropriate organizations and institutions investigate whether war crimes have been or are being committed, that we can support whatever they’re doing. So right now, we’re looking at these reports. They’re very credible and we’re documents everything,” the secretary said.
On the possibility of Russian oil imports ban, Blinken told CNN’s Jake Tapper, “When it comes to oil, Russian oil, I was on the phone yesterday with the President and other members of the Cabinet on exactly the subject, and we are now talking to our European partners and allies to look in a coordinated way at the prospect of banning the import of Russian oil while making sure that there is still an appropriate supply of oil in world markets.”
The US is also in talks with Poland on a deal to provide fighter jets to Ukraine, a White House spokesperson confirmed. The spokesperson said that they were figuring out the logistics as to how the aircraft would be transferred from Poland to Ukraine. US is determining what “capabilities we could provide to backfill Poland if it decided to transfer planes to Ukraine,” added the spokesperson, reported CNN News. The spokesperson did not clear what “backfill” options were under consideration and noted that sending fighter jets into Ukraine is a “sovereign decision for any country to make”. Moreover, two US lawmakers participated in a Zoom call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday said Zelenskyy indicated Poland had signalled it is prepared to send MiG fighter jets but “they are only waiting for you [the US] to allow it.” Poland is a NATO country. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday said, “Poland is doing vital work to respond to this (Ukraine) crisis. It has done a great deal to facilitate security assistance to Ukraine. Since January 30, the US has more than doubled the number of military personnel deployed in Poland to now more than 10,000.”
As for Putin’s conversation with Erdogan, a Kremlin statement said, “Vladimir Putin informed about the progress of the special military operation on protecting Donbas, conveyed principal approaches and assessments in this context, explained in detail basic set goals and tasks. It was emphasized that the special operation is proceeding according to a plan and is on schedule,” reported TASS News Agency.
As per the statement, Russian forces “were doing everything possible to preserve the lives and guarantee the security of civilians, precision strikes are targeting exclusively the facilities of military infrastructure.”
“Against this background, the actions of nationalist neo-Nazi formations that continue the intensive shelling of Donbas and use civilians, including foreigners, practically taken hostage, as human shields in Ukrainian cities and localities, are particularly cruel and cynical,” the statement noted.
The Russian leader confirmed “the Russian side’s readiness for dialogue with Ukraine’s authorities and foreign partners in order to settle the conflict.”
“That said, the futility was noted of any attempts to stall the negotiation process used by the Ukrainian army to regroup its forces and means. In relation to that, it was stressed that the suspension of the special operation is possible only if Kyiv ceases the military actions and fulfils Russia’s demands that were made perfectly clear,” the Kremlin reported.
Furthermore, Putin told French President Emmanuel Macron over the phone on Sunday that he was not against a trilateral meeting among Russia, Ukraine and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in a third country or via teleconference, but not in Chernobyl in Ukraine, the Kremlin said. Putin also told his French counterpart that Kyiv does not comply with the agreements reached with Moscow on the evacuation of civilians from combat areas, the Kremlin said, reported Sputnik. “They discussed the issue of evacuation of civilians from combat areas. Vladimir Putin drew [Macron’s] attention to the fact that Kyiv is still not implementing the negotiated agreements on such a pressing humanitarian issue,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
That evacuation of civilians from war zones is becoming a problem became evident on Sunday, when the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that the second attempt to evacuate 200,000 civilians stranded in Mariupol in Ukraine had failed and added that the parties involved in the ceasefire agreement need to agree not just in principle but also on the details of safe passages. The Mariupol City Council had announced the evacuation of civilians via humanitarian corridors on Sunday, a day later than the initially agreed upon date with Russia, but that did not work out. “People are living in terror in Mariupol, desperate for safety. Today’s attempt to start evacuating an estimated 200,000 people has failed. The failed attempts underscore the absence of a detailed and functioning agreement between parties to the conflict,” ICRC said in a tweet. Meanwhile, Russia’s military operations continued in Ukraine, with eight rockets launched by Russia destroying Vinnytsia airport located in Central Ukraine, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday. Zelenskyy also said, “The world has the power to close our skies for Russian rockets and aircraft. A NATO summit took place today. It was a weak summit, a confused summit, a summit that shows that not everyone considers the fight for freedom in Europe the number one goal.” Zelenskyy accused the NATO of giving Russia “the green light to start shelling Ukrainian cities and villages.” US and Nato have been refusing to comply with Zelenskyy’s demand of declaring Ukraine’s airspace as a no-fly zone as that will result in Nato’s direct involvement in the war if Russia violates Ukraine’s airspace. Putin has warned against implementing a no fly zone over Ukraine.