SerpApi.Org
There is a “toxic atmosphere” within Vladimir Putin’s inner circle as Russia continues to take heavy losses on the battlefield, according to Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Ukrainian president claimed his military’s recent strikes deep inside Russia have unsettled the Kremlin – including those around the Russian leader himself.
Putin is supposedly being blamed by his own top team for the growing list of casualties.
In his nightly video address to the Ukrainian people, Zelenskyy said: “The situation on the front, together with our long-range sanctions and mid-range strikes, is creating a new atmosphere around Putin.
“A very toxic atmosphere. He alone is the reason this war began and hasn’t ended. Putin alone is responsible for the losses Russians continue to suffer.
“His retinue understands this – they are signalling it to us and to our partners.
“Russian society is beginning to feel it more and more as well. We need decisions to bring about peace.”
Think tank CSIS (Centre for Strategic and International Studies) estimates Russia has suffered 1.4 million battlefield casualties and 450,000 deaths since the Kremlin leader sent his troops into Ukraine in 2022.
Zelenskyy’s remarks came after Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov met with the US’s top diplomat Marco Rubio for negotiations over the war in Ukraine.
While Donald Trump previously vowed to end the conflict during the first 24 hours of his second term, he lost interest earlier this year after triggering a direct war with Iran.
This meeting was meant to revive diplomacy efforts.
Lavrov told the American team it is “unacceptable” for them to arm Ukraine, referring to the US selling arms via a Nato scheme.
He also claimed Russia is still committed to the proposals Trump put forward in 2025 during his meeting with Putin in Alaska.
The president suggested at the time that Ukraine should make major concessions in the name of peace, even though that has always been a red line for Kyiv.
Rubio later told reporters that he had a “frank” conversation with his Russian counterpart, and described Putin’s illegal invasion as a “bloody war”.
He added: “Russia is now suffering strikes deep in its territory, that’s something we didn’t see [before].
“At the end of the year, winter is still going to hit Ukraine, they’re obviously going to have to defend their airspace and there are people suffering every day.”
He said Russia is losing “upwards of 5,000 to 6,000 soldiers a week”, and that the killed-in-action rate is higher than the casualty rate.
“We want the war to end, we’re prepared to play whatever positive role we can to end the war,” Rubio said.
“It will require something that both Russia and Ukraine can agree to, that’s not going to happen at a press conference, that’s not going to happen at one meeting here in the Philippines, that’s going to require a lot of work.
“We’ve invested in the past in it, it was unsuccessful, at least unfruitful at the time, if conditions and factors have changed to make it possible we’re ready to go.”
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