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A senior Ukrainian diplomat on Monday called on Russia to be handed a reparations bill as part of any peace deal to end the 10-week war.
Ambassador in London Vadym Prystaiko said Russia “has to pay for everything” after its missiles ravaged Ukrainian cities and unleashed a humanitarian crisis in Europe. Ukraine’s economy is projected to almost halve in size this year.
Mr Prystaiko, who described himself as a hardliner on the talks and said his views were not Ukraine’s official negotiating position, said the prosecution of alleged Russian war crimes should also form part of any settlement.
Face-to-face peace talks have not taken place since March 29, shortly before the grim discovery of civilian corpses in areas near Kyiv that had been occupied by Russian forces.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown no sign of calling off an invasion which he lauded in a Victory Day speech on Monday, marking 77 years since the Soviet victory in the Second World War, as an echo of that conflict.
But Britain’s Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who said it was Russia “mirroring the fascism and tyranny” of the Nazis, said Mr Putin had given himself a possible way out by focusing his rhetoric on capturing the eastern Donbas.
Ukraine has said it could negotiate in a situation where Russia and its allied separatists retreat to the territory they held on February 23, which included portions of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the Donbas.
It proposed in the stalled talks that the two presidents, Mr Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, decide the future of the Donbas face to face and that the two sides have breathing space to discuss the Crimean peninsula in a deal that would span 15 years if a ceasefire agreement was reached.
On the question of Ukraine’s future alliances, Mr Prystaiko told a King’s College London defence conference that the country was still seeking EU membership but that its proposals did not envisage joining Nato.
But he indicated that hardliners such as himself would seek to add another condition to Ukraine’s demands by saying Russia should be made to pay for the damage it has inflicted.
“I can’t see why we have to look into the pockets of western taxpayers’ money for the after-war reconstruction. I believe Russia has to pay for everything,” he said.
He said “the best way out of it is if Ukraine wins militarily”, echoing what western colleagues such as Mr Wallace have said about wanting to strengthen Ukraine’s negotiating position.
US and European officials say Russia’s offensive has been plagued by problems including technical failures, poor intelligence and low morale among troops after hopes of a quick victory were dashed.
Ukraine has received ever more heavy-duty weapons from allies, including lorry-mounted cannon from France, anti-aircraft tanks from Germany and Starstreak air defence systems from Britain.
Mr Wallace said at the same London event that western sanctions, although criticised by some for failing to push the Kremlin into a rethink, would eventually bite when it struggles to refurbish its depleted armed forces.
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An injured Ukrainian service member sits at a field hospital inside Azovstal steel works in Mariupol, Ukraine. Reuters -
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends a meeting in Kyiv with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra. Reuters -
Ukrainian servicemen study a Swedish shoulder-launched weapon system during a training session near Kharkiv. AP Photo -
Russian emergency personnel clear debris inside Mariupol's drama theatre. AFP -
Ukrainian servicemen study a map near Kharkiv. EPA -
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends an online meeting with the Saratov region's acting governor, Roman Busargin, in Moscow. AP -
Belgian soldiers take part in a Nato military exercise near Munster, Germany. Getty -
Ukraine's prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova, left, speaks with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, right, during her visit to mass graves in Bucha, Ukraine. EPA -
A guard of honour stands at attention during the funerals of Sgt Olexandr Moisenko and Sergiy Turpetko in Lviv, Ukraine. Getty -
Plumes of smoke rise above the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol amid Russian shelling. AFP -
US President Joe Biden signs into law a measure making it easier for Washington to send weapons and supplies to the government in Kyiv. Bloomberg -
A Ukrainian soldier fires with a mortar, in the Kharkiv region. Reuters -
The Eiffel Tower is lit up in blue and yellow, the national colours of Ukraine, to express solidarity with its people at the request of the French Presidency of the EU, in Paris. Reuters -
A Ukrainian Army tank drives over an infantryman during a training exercise near Kryvyi Rih. Getty Images -
A Ukrainian soldier rests in his room at a front-line field hospital near Popasna, Luhansk region. EPA -
Russian President Vladimir Putin lays flowers at the Memorial to Hero Cities at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier after the Victory Day military parade in Moscow. EPA -
Ukrainian refugees from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol are seen in a bus as they arrive at a humanitarian aid centre for internally displaced people, in Zaporizhzhia. Reuters -
A hotel complex destroyed by a Russian missile is pictured in Odesa, Ukraine. Reuters -
Maksym, 3, is photographed with his brother, Dmytro, 16, on top of a destroyed Russian tank on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine. AP Photo -
A video of a press conference from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol by Azov regiment servicemen Illia Samoilenko, right, and Sviatoslav Palamar, seen on a computer screen in Kyiv. EPA -
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy take part in a online meeting of G7 leaders in Kyiv. Reuters -
US first lady Jill Biden greets Olena Zelenska, wife of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, outside a public school in Uzhhorod, Ukraine. Reuters -
Irish singer and activist Bono, the lead vocalist of rock band U2, performs at a subway station that has been turned into a bomb shelter in Kyiv. AFP -
A boy looks out of a bus window as people evacuated from Mariupol arrive in Zaporizhzhia. AFP -
A night-vision image shows fire on Ukraine's Zmiinyi Island. Reuters -
Women sing the Ukrainian national anthem below the Euro Monument during a demonstration in Frankfurt, Germany. AP -
Emergency personnel at a school building hit by shelling, in the village of Bilohorivka, Luhansk. Reuters -
A man plays piano in an abandoned photo studio in Severodonetsk, eastern Ukraine. AFP -
A man and his son wait for an evacuation bus in Lysychansk, eastern Ukraine. AFP -
Volunteers deliver food supplies to residents, taken from the warehouse of a humanitarian aid distribution centre in Severodonetsk. AFP -
An unexploded ordnance on a road in Severodonetsk. AFP -
Galina Abdurashikova, 65, has been staying in an abondoned car in front of her apartment since her room was destroyed by shelling five days ago, in Severodonetsk. AFP -
A large hole at the site where a missile strike hit a residential area in Bakhmut, Donetsk region. Reuters -
A man searches for useful items inside his house after a missile strike in a residential area, in Bakhmut. Reuters -
Two men look at the damage after a missile struck a cement plant, in Bakhmut. Reuters -
Civilians attempting to leave Mariupol wait in line at a checkpoint near the temporary accommodation centre in Bezimenoye village. EPA -
Civilians who were evacuated from Azovstal, walk in the temporary accommodation centre in Bezimenoye village, near Mariupol. EPA -
A cyclist photographs the destroyed bridge over the Irpin river, in Irpin. Getty Images -
A residential area destroyed by Russian shelling, in Irpin. Reuters -
People with their luggage walk to a station to wait for the evacuation train heading to the west of Ukraine, in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region. EPA -
A volunteer shapes metal plates at a factory producing material for Ukrainian soldiers in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. AP -
Workers clean shattered glass and debris in front of a residential building next to a site of a Russian missile attack in the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa. AFP -
A Ukrainian Army tank moves towards a fron-tline position in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Getty Images -
Eugene Yevchenko cries as he bids farewell to his daughter Maria at a coach station in Lviv. Getty Images -
A child stands on a destroyed Russian tank near Makariv, Kyiv region. Reuters -
A Ukrainian national guard soldier mans a fighting position near the front line in Zelenodolsk. Getty Images -
Museum workers carry the sculpture of Ukrainian philosopher Hryhorri Skovoroda from the destroyed building of the Hryhoriy Skovoroda National Literary Memorial Museum in the village of Skovorodynivka, in Kharkiv Region. AFP
Although the Russian leader did not, as some had anticipated, announce a major change in strategy in his Victory Day speech, Mr Wallace said Mr Putin showed signs of shaping a narrative that the war was now about the Donbas.
But he issued a warning that for Mr Putin, despite his woes on the battlefield, there is “one component he still has in his back pocket … which is brutality”, he said.
“If you win your war by killing, murdering, raping, bombing civilian territories, breaching all human rights, all Geneva Conventions, corruption and that becomes the battle-winning component, the message that sends around the world to other adversaries around the world is incredibly dangerous.
“That’s why it matters to the international community and should matter, that if Putin is successful in Ukraine, then watch out.”
The London conference attended by former senior Nato generals was later to hear a draft declaration on the defence of Europe.
