“Everyone should know that, in general, we have not started anything seriously yet,” he told Kremlin lawmakers. The comments came days after Russian forces claimed control of Lysychansk and with it all of Luhansk, one of two provinces that make up Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region. The capture of the city brought Moscow closer to its stated goal of seizing Donbas, which the Kremlin has declared independent from Kyiv. But Russian victories in the Donbass have come at a heavy cost, and Russian advances are beginning to slow. The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank in Washington, D.C., said in its assessment that Russia failed to make territorial advances inside Ukraine on Wednesday – the first time in 133 days of war that the Kremlin has gained zero ground . Firefighters lower a burning car after a strike hit a residential area in Kramatorsk, Ukraine on July 7, 2022. Nariman El-Mofty/AP “The Russian Ministry of Defense has claimed territorial gains every day since the start of the war, but has not claimed new territory or ground force movements since the encirclement of Lysychansk was completed on July 3,” the institute wrote. Analysts at the think tank said the Russian activities were consistent with an “operational pause” in major movements and that “Russian forces will likely be limited to relatively small-scale offensive actions” as they try to rebuild their offensive capabilities after weeks of heavy fighting. While Russia has seized large chunks of Ukrainian territory, the victories have come at the cost of a four-month war effort marred by logistical failures, a retreat from the Ukrainian capital and the loss of a Russian naval flagship. Putin said Russia has not “started anything serious yet”. Alexei Nikolsky/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool/AP In the midst of his speech on Thursday, Putin appeared to reopen the door to a negotiated end to the conflict. “We do not reject peace talks,” he said. “But those who reject them should know that the longer it goes on, the harder it will be for them to negotiate with us.” At the same time this week, encouraged by the arrival of Western artillery and reports of Russian military casualties, Ukrainian officials set a high bar for negotiations with the Kremlin. An injured woman looks at her wounds in an ambulance after a strike hit a residential area in Ukraine. Nariman El-Mofty/APA A 66-year-old man was injured by a Russian strike in Kramatorsk, Ukraine. Nariman El-Mofty/AP On Twitter, Mykhailo Podolyak, Kiev’s chief negotiator, provided a list of conditions that would bring his delegation back to the table. “Cease fire. [Russian] withdrawal of troops. Returns of abducted citizens. Extradition of war criminals. Recovery mechanism. The recognition of Ukraine’s sovereign rights,” he wrote. With Post cables
