INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The West's attempts to persuade Ukraine to negotiate with Moscow, after a series of major military victories by Kyiv, are "bizarre" and
amount to asking for its capitulation, a key adviser to the Ukrainian presidency told AFP."When you have the initiative on the battlefield,
it's slightly bizarre to receive proposals like: 'you will not be able to do everything by military means anyway, you need to negotiate',"
said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak.This would mean that the country "that recovers its territories,
must capitulate to the country that is losing," he added, during an interview with AFP at his office in the presidency building in Kyiv.U.S
media recently reported that some senior officials were beginning to encourage Ukraine to consider talks, which Zelensky has so far rejected
without a prior withdrawal of Russian forces from all Ukrainian territory."There has to be a mutual recognition that military victory is
probably in the true sense of the word maybe not achievable through military means," top U.S
General Mark Milley said earlier this month, estimating that there is "a window of opportunity for negotiation."According to Podolyak,
Moscow has not made "any direct proposal" to Kyiv for peace talks, preferring to transmit them through intermediaries and even raising the
possibility of a ceasefire.Negotiating 'makes no sense'Kyiv sees such talk as mere maneuvering by the Kremlin to win some respite on the
the Ukraine presidential adviser said."It will simply stall for time
military defeats in recent weeks, including Ukraine retaking the key southern city of Kherson, President Vladimir Putin still thinks "he can
partner."Following massive Russian withdrawals from the Kyiv region in March, then from the Kharkiv region in the northeast in September,
military victories, Ukraine can "afford no pause" in its counteroffensive, despite the arrival of winter cold and snow that make the
official.Longer-range missilesMoscow has been shelling the country's energy infrastructure for weeks, plunging millions of homes into
while refusing to speculate on the possibility of a military operation to retake the Crimean peninsula, which Moscow annexed back in
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak used his first visit to Kyiv on Saturday to offer a major new air defense package, including 125 anti-aircraft
guns."We still need 150 to 200 tanks, about 300 armored vehicles," a hundred artillery systems, 50-70 multiple rocket launcher systems,
including the formidable American HIMARS, of which Ukraine already has several units, as well as "10 to 15 anti-aircraft defense systems to
ATACMS missiles, which have a range of 300 kilometers (185 miles)
the war closer" by allowing Ukraine to "destroy large Russian military depots" located deep in occupied areas which are currently
