Despite Talks, Putin Takes Hard Line Over Ukraine Border Control

  • Eastern Ukraine could become another Srebrenica, Putin said
  • Claim made a day after Putin held first meeting with Zelenskiy

Vladimir Putin attends a news conference following a 4-way summit on Ukraine in Paris on Dec. 9.

Photographer: Christophe Morin/Bloomberg
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said returning control of Ukraine’s eastern border to Ukrainian forces could lead to a genocide similar to the massacre in Srebrenica during the Bosnian war.

“The Ukrainian side is always raising the issue: ‘Give us the opportunity to close the border with troops.’ Well I can imagine what will happen then. It will be another Srebrenica,” Putin told a meeting of his Kremlin human rights council on Tuesday.