KYIV: A day after President Vladimir Putin declared he was ready for talks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday gave Ukraine an ultimatum to meet Moscow's demands, including giving up territory it controls, or His army will decide the matter.

With its army pounding Ukrainian cities with missiles and rockets and Moscow continuing to demand that Kyiv recognize its conquest of a fifth of the country, Kyiv and its Western allies have rejected Putin's offer to talk .

Kyiv declared that it would fight until Russia left.

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"The enemy is well aware of our proposals for demilitarization and denationalization of regime-controlled areas, eliminating threats emanating from there to Russia's security," Lavrov said late Monday, according to state news agency TASS. Lavrov said. ,

The message is clear: Follow them to your advantage. Otherwise, the Russian army will decide the matter.
On 24 February, Putin declared the invasion of Ukraine a "special operation", aimed at "Anazizing" and demilitarizing the country, which he claimed was a threat to Russia. Putin's invasion was, according to Kyiv and the West, just an imperialist land grab.

After humiliating battlefield setbacks, Russian forces engaged in fierce fighting in the east and south of Ukraine as the war entered its eleventh month.

The latest attack to reveal holes in Russia's air defenses came on Monday when a drone believed to be from Ukraine crossed hundreds of kilometers through Russian airspace and fatally exploded over Moscow's main base of strategic bombers.

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On 5 December, a drone reportedly attacked the same base.
On Monday, Moscow claimed responsibility for shooting down the drone, which then crashed at Engels Air Base, killing three service members. As is customary for it in connection with events inside Russia, Ukraine did not comment.

Hundreds of miles from the Ukrainian border, the base serves as the primary airfield for bombers that Kyiv claims Moscow has used to attack Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. As a part of its long-term strategic deterrent, Russia has also carried nuclear-capable missile launchers on the same aircraft.

According to a statement by the Russian Defense Ministry, no aircraft were damaged, but according to Russian and Ukrainian social media accounts several were reportedly destroyed. The reports could not be independently verified by Reuters.

Putin hosted a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States in St. Petersburg on Monday with the participation of leaders of other former Soviet states, which Ukraine has long abandoned.

Putin said in televised remarks that there was a growing threat to the security and stability of the Eurasian region, but made no specific mention of the war.

"Unfortunately, there are challenges and threats in the region, especially from outside," he added. We must regretfully acknowledge that differences may also exist between Commonwealth member states.

Russia's established dominance over other former Soviet states has been put to the test by its invasion of Ukraine.

While border disputes have flared up between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, recent conflicts have escalated into fighting between CIS members Armenia and Azerbaijan where Russia has sent peacekeepers. According to Putin, these disputes should be settled through "comrade help and arbitration actions".

In his evening video address on Monday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky described the situation at the front in the Donbas region as "difficult and painful", calling for the country's "strength and concentration".

He claimed that about nine million people were without power as a result of Russia's attack on Ukraine's energy infrastructure. This figure is approximately 25% of the total population of Ukraine.

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Since the invasion, Ukraine has forced Russian forces to retreat east and south, driving them north and defeating them near the city of Kyiv. However, Putin claims large parts of the eastern and southern regions to remain under Russian control.

With cities destroyed by Russia leaving thousands of soldiers dead on both sides and tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians dead, Putin had to call in hundreds of thousands of reservists for the first time since World War Two.