According to Kremlin insiders, Vladimir Putin has abandoned peace talks with Ukraine as he wants to grab as much land as possible for Russia.
The three insiders claimed the Russian president wanted to grab territory because he felt negotiations had reached a “dead end,” the Financial Times reported.
A source said: “There was hope of a deal. Putin paced back and forth. He has to find a way to come out victorious.’
“Putin sincerely believes the nonsense he hears [Russian] TV and he wants to win big,” added another insider.
A third said he would not sign anything after being humiliated by the sinking of the Moskva.
A senior member of the Ukrainian delegation, Rustem Umirov, said: “We continue the negotiation process. First and foremost – to save more lives of our people.”
“We will make every political and diplomatic effort to stop this bloodshed. But there are red lines that we will never cross. Ukraine will never give up its people and territories,” he told the Times.
It comes as officials in the contested Ukrainian city of Mariupol say a new “200-metre mass grave” that could contain hundreds of bodies has been identified north of the city.
Mayor Vadym Boychenko said authorities are trying to estimate the number of victims in the grave about six miles north of Mariupol.
This would be the third, after satellite photos released in recent days have shown images of other mass graves.
On Saturday, chilling satellite photos revealed a second mass grave near Mariupol – while Russian forces continued to beat the last 2,000 Ukrainian defenders trapped at a steel mill in the city.
Maxar Technologies photos showed the find spot in a cemetery in the town of Vynohradne. It has several newly dug parallel trenches about 131 feet long, Maxar said in a statement.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Vladimir Putin that he would “lose” if he tried to build a Nazi-style “millennium Reich”.
According to Kremlin insiders, Vladimir Putin has abandoned peace talks with Ukraine as he wants to grab as much land as possible for Russia
A volunteer puts the stretcher carrying Klavidia, 91, on the ground before boarding a train at a train station in Pokrovsk
Smoke billows over an Azovstal Iron and Steel Works plant in the southern port city of Mariupol during the Ukraine-Russia conflict
People watch as an apartment building burns after a Russian bombing raid in Kharkiv
Bodies are waiting to be identified outside a morgue in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv
It comes as officials in the contested Ukrainian city of Mariupol say a new “200-metre mass grave” (pictured) that could contain hundreds of bodies has been identified north of the city
Emergency management specialists and volunteers remove the rubble from a theater building destroyed in the Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol
Now Russia is cutting off the water supply
Desperate Ukrainians struggling with food shortages have also had their water cut off by Russian shelling.
Lugansk governor Serhiy Haidai accused the Kremlin of systematically attacking power plants and water pumps in order to punish the local population.
Last week officials in Luhansk said Russian forces had deliberately targeted food supplies to the eastern region.
They flooded the key city of Sievierodonetsk with rockets, wiping out all food depots, markets and shops.
The city of 100,000 has declined by 17,000 and is now dependent on relief supplies.
In his last telegram, the President of Ukraine said: “Russia can devote enormous resources to support the war and even oppose the entire free world. It can take from its people anything that Russia might develop and direct its potential to destroying the lives of its neighbors.
“But the lessons of history are known. If you want to build a millennial empire, you will lose. If you want to destroy neighbors, you will lose. Whoever wants to restore an old empire will lose. And if you play against the Ukrainians, you will lose.’
He continued: “It is obvious that every day, and especially today, when the third month of our resistance has begun, everyone in Ukraine worries about peace, when it will all be over, when and what victory for Ukraine will be. There is a simple answer to this question, but at the same time none.
“When victory comes everyone will feel it, when peace comes everyone will see it. But in order for it to happen and happen sooner, we must not think about when and what it will be. Every day we have to think about how to make the presence of occupiers on our land even more intolerable.
“Ukraine is ready for peace. It was also ready when the war in Donbass continued. It is still ready when the Russian invasion is large-scale. But to make Russia seek peace, all Ukrainian men and women must fight, must defend freedom. Because every day of fighting will add years and years to the peaceful life after this war, after our victory.
“Within two months, a global anti-war coalition was formed. Sanctions have been imposed on Russia that have deprived it of its future. Ukraine receives support from dozens of countries, including support with arms, finances, necessary goods and direct political support. We have accelerated our way into the European Union.”
Mariupol has been decimated by fierce fighting over the past two months. The city’s capture would deprive Ukraine of a vital port and allow Moscow to establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014.
This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows a closer view of new graves being dug in a cemetery near Vynohradne, about 12 kilometers east of Mariupol, Ukraine
Several newly dug parallel ditches about 40 meters long are located at a cemetery in the town of Vynohradne, Maxar said in a statement
On Thursday, Maxar released photos of what appeared to be rows of more than 200 freshly dug mass graves next to a cemetery in the town of Manhush outside Mariupol. This led to Ukrainian accusations that the Russians are trying to cover up the slaughter of civilians in the city.
“This again confirms that the occupiers are arranging the collection, burial and cremation of dead residents in each district of the city,” Andryushchenko said on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukrainians estimated the graves seen in photos released Thursday could contain 9,000 bodies. The Kremlin did not respond to the satellite images.
Meanwhile, Russian forces have resumed airstrikes and are attempting to storm the Azovstal Steel Plant where the remaining Ukrainian forces are based in Mariupol, Ukraine’s Presidential Advisor Oleksiy Arestovych said on Saturday.
“The enemy is trying to crush the last resistance of the Mariupol defenders in the Azov valley,” Arestovych said on national television.
Fresh attempts to evacuate civilians from the city on Saturday failed, an aide to the Mariupol mayor revealed.
On Thursday, Maxar released photos of what appeared to be rows of more than 200 freshly dug mass graves next to a cemetery in the town of Manhush outside Mariupol