Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed Ukraine for the breakdown in peace talks and says the “military operation” will continue. He said Ukraine has shown “inconsistency in key issues from the talks” and that allegations of war crimes are fake. Peace talks were last held in Turkey’s capital Istanbul at the end of March, where Russia had agreed to reduce combat operations around Kyiv and the north to “boost mutual trust”, but progress has now stalled. It comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russian forces are planning “a new stage of terror” in eastern Ukraine that could involve the use of chemical weapons. Ukrainian fighters say people in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol have already experienced poisoning by warfare chemicals, but that has not been confirmed. In response, Zelensky wants the West to impose stronger sanctions on Russia.