Vladimir Putin, Peacemaker

"A Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle [drone] was shot down at low altitude while approaching the
Engels military airfield in the Saratov region."

"Three Russian servicemen of the technical staff who were at the airfield were fatally wounded as a result of falling drone wreckage."

Russian Defence Ministry

"Unfortunately challenges and threats in this area, especially from the outside, are only growing each year."

"We also have to acknowledge unfortunately that disagreements also arise between member states of the commonwealth."

"We are ready to negotiate with everyone involved about acceptable solutions but that is up to them -- we are not the ones refusing to negotiate, they are."

Russian President Vladimir Putin

"Russia single-handedly attacked Ukraine and is killing citizens."

"Russia doesn't want negotiations, but tries to avoid responsibility."

Mykhailo Podolyak, advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

A Ukrainian soldier watches a drone feed from an underground command center in Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Sunday, Dec. 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Libkos)

There you have it. Speaking authoritatively, confidently before a gathering of former Soviet state leaders in St.Petersburg at a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States group, Putin deplored growing insecurity threatening the stability of the Eurasian region. People should be reasonable, talk to one another, use diplomacy not threats, and above all avoid the violence of conflict. 

 

The other states, still faithful to the Russian Federation as allies from the old Soviet-era days purporting now to be autonomous, look upon Vladimir Putin as their role model, the authority figure they emulate. Russia's adventure in Ukraine has been scrutinized by them and not found wanting. In recent months fighting has surged between Armenia and Azerbaijan despite the presence of Russian peacemakers.

 

Other members of the CIS group see Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan engaged in a border dispute. Such disagreements, Putin admonished them, should be resolved through "comradely help and mediating action". The Russia-Ukraine model, for example. For, as Mr. Putin explained, he was open to negotiations over Ukraine, but it is Kyiv and its Western backers who have failed to engage in diplomatic talks. Moscow's conciliatory overtures to Kyiv have been rejected.

 

It is Kyiv's fault that the conflict continues. It could stop, if Kyiv was amenable. All it has to do is agree that it will no longer contest Russia's annexation of a fifth of Ukrainian territory. But no, Kyiv insists it will fight to the end, until its sovereign territory has been restored to Ukraine, its rightful owner. What can you do with some unreasonable adversaries, but carry on?

 

Kyiv, in fact, has been engaging in some pretty unsavoury action. Sending penetrating drones hundreds of kilometres through Russian airspace. For the second time this month penetrating drones crossing into Russia have caused a deadly explosion, an attack on the Dyagilevo airfield, close by the city of Ryazan where three people were killed and six injured in the explosion of a fuel tanker. How can one negotiate with such treachery?

 

Residents view a destroyed apartment building following overnight shelling in Kherson, Ukraine, on 21 December 2022. [ EPA-EFE/Maria Senovilla]

 

Still, according to the Russian defence ministry no planes were damaged. Yet both Russian and Ukrainian social media accounts reveal that several planes were destroyed. Although there has been no formal acknowledgement of responsibility by Ukraine, Yuril Ihnat, spokesman for the Ukrainian air froce spoke of the incident as a "consequence of what Russia is doing on our land". 

 

Not only a consequence but a repeat of the missile attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure that has denied Ukrainian civilians winter heat, electrical connections and water.

 

The Ukrainian military, unlike its Russian counterpart, aims for military infrastructure, not civilian enclaves. Unlike Russia's military which deliberately carries out attacks against civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, shopping centres, schools, apartment buildings, government buildings and above all energy facilities with an aim to create chaos and terror, to intimidate and to terrorize to make people suffer privation. In an effort to break the Ukrainian resolve to defend itself from a ruthless aggressor.

 

Ukraine carried out the attack with drones and the help of a military reconnaissance unit coordinating it deep inside Russian territory | Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images