Zelensky just called on Putin for talks "to stop the dying," but Russia signaled today it's not interested. "We are ready for talks at any moment," Lavrov said, "as soon as the Ukrainian Armed Forces…stop their resistance and put down their arms." nytimes.com/live/2022/02/2…
Now Kremlin seems to vaguely reverse course; Peskov says Putin is prepared to send representatives to Minsk, Belarus, for talks with Ukraine, after Zelensky earlier said he was ready to discuss Ukraine’s “neutral status.”
The Kremlin said it was ready for talks after Mr. Putin held a call with Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader. nytimes.com/live/2022/02/2…
And now Putin on TV again. Describes Zelensky's government as a "band of drug addicts and neo-Nazis that has lodged itself in Kyiv and taken hostage the entire Ukrainian people."
In hastily arranged call with reporters, Peskov claims Ukraine has stopped responding to Russia's proposal for talks while Ukraine's military is setting up rocket launchers in residential neighborhoods in Kyiv and elsewhere. “We believe this situation to be extremely dangerous.”
Russia is partially limiting access to Facebook, where Russians have been voicing dissent on the war; many expect the government to intensify its crackdown on freedoms in the days and weeks to come. nytimes.com/2022/02/25/wor…
Indeed. It’s also, I think, to try to limit the war’s presence in Russian public opinion. What a contrast to the Nagorno-Karabakh War of 2020, when Azerbaijan was releasing copious drone footage of its weapons killing Armenians.
https://twitter.com/konrad_muzyka/status/1497286798871048192
Russian state TV is still calling this a “special military operation to defend the LNR and DNR.” 
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