Europe1 .fr with AFP 7:12 a.m., December 23, 2022

On the 303rd day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, diplomatic discussions remain difficult.

Vladimir Putin denounces a lack of "willingness to listen to Russia" after the visit of Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky to the United States, after having assured that he wanted the end of the conflict as soon as possible.

THE ESSENTIAL

Is peace on the horizon between Russia and Ukraine?

President Vladimir Putin assures his desire to see the conflict end as soon as possible, but the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken believes that the Kremlin has shown no "significant" desire to end the war.

The conflict has been raging for 302 days.

The main information to remember:

  •  A museum in the city of Kherson was heavily hit in the strikes.

  • The establishment housed 180,000 objects of local history.

  • On the side of diplomatic exchanges, the Kremlin denounced Zelensky's visit to Biden.

  • Vladimir Putin lamented a lack of "willingness to listen to Russia".

Meanwhile, in Kherson, in southern Ukraine, the head of the city's local history museum discovers with horror the building heavily damaged by Russian strikes.

In Kherson, a museum in shock after Russian looting

"Everything was broken and destroyed": at the sight of shattered display cases and desperately empty shelves, Olga Goncharova, head of a museum in Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine recently retaken from the Russians, felt "like a blow of a knife in the heart".

After more than eight months of Russian occupation, she discovered, appalled, the state in which the occupants left these places that she has been surveying since 1978.

Devoted to local history, the Kherson Regional Museum housed around 180,000 objects in its collections before the Russian invasion launched at the end of February.

"Everything that had material value, they stole it or took it in an unknown direction", castigates the acting director of the Museum, during a visit to this establishment.

"All the photos, the documents, all the things that were there... everything was familiar to me," she explains.

"It's my second or maybe my first home."

But the state of desolation she discovers on her return leaves her speechless.

"It was incomparable emotions. Like a stab in the heart," she laments.

"It was a terrible shock."

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Kremlin sees 'no willingness to listen to Russia' after Zelensky's visit to Washington

The Kremlin denounced Thursday a lack of "willingness to listen to Russia" after the visit to the United States of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, while Vladimir Putin said he wanted the conflict to end "as soon" as possible.

On his way back to his country, Volodymyr Zelensky met the Polish head of state Andrzej Duda in Poland, before arriving in Ukraine a few hours later.

"We are coming back from Washington with good results. With something that will really help," he said in a video shot in Poland, referring to the delivery of an American Patriot missile system, which kyiv had been asking for months. .

For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin brushed aside the benefits for Ukraine of this "rather old system".

"Our opponents assume it's a defensive weapon. Fine, we'll keep that in mind. And there's always an antidote," he said.

"It's only a way to prolong the conflict, that's all... We will try to make sure it ends. And the sooner the better, of course."