Russia-Ukraine battle newest: Trump hints at gatecrashing Zelensky and Putin’s landmark assembly

Russia launched simply 10 Shahed and decoy drones at Ukraine in night-time assaults, the Ukrainian air pressure mentioned this morning.

That makes it the smallest in a single day aerial bombardment this 12 months at a time when the warring international locations are making ready for the potential of peace talks in Turkey.

The Kremlin hasn’t straight responded to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s problem for Russian chief Vladimir Putin to fulfill him in particular person on the negotiations in Istanbul on Thursday.

Mr Zelensky is not going to be assembly with any Russian officers in Istanbul apart from Mr Putin, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Mr Zelensky, mentioned this morning on a YouTube present run by distinguished Russian journalists in exile.

Decrease-level talks would quantity to easily “dragging out” any peace course of, Mr Podolyak mentioned.

European leaders have not too long ago accused Mr Putin of dragging his toes in peace efforts whereas he makes an attempt to press his greater military’s battlefield initiative and seize extra Ukrainian land.

Russia successfully rejected an unconditional 30-day ceasefire demanded by Ukraine and Western European leaders from Monday (yesterday), when it fired greater than 100 drones at Ukraine.

Mr Putin as an alternative supplied direct peace talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on Thursday.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has backed Donald Trump’s presence at peace talks in Istanbul this week, saying Ukraine has “at all times supported diplomacy” and that he’s “prepared to return to Türkiye”.

“President Erdogan has expressed full readiness to host the assembly. It will be significant that President Trump absolutely helps the assembly, and we want him to seek out a possibility to return to Türkiye,” Mr Zelensky mentioned in his nightly handle.

He additionally referred to as out silence from the Kremlin on direct presents from Kyiv for peace talks.

“Moscow has remained silent all day concerning the proposal for a direct assembly. A really unusual silence. A method or one other, Russia must finish this battle – and the earlier, the higher. There isn’t a sense in persevering with the killing,” he mentioned.

Vladimir Putin’s 2am press convention on Sunday was not simply theatre, it was his newest salvo within the psychological battle to form world perceptions of who is actually in charge for Russia’s battle with Ukraine.

That was a giant concession to the invader, but it surely was accompanied by a requirement that Putin conform to a 30-day ceasefire – additionally demanded by the 4 European leaders whom Zelensky had simply met.

Summit diplomacy can finish wars, writes Mark Almond:

Officers in Russia seem like setting circumstances for Vladimir Putin to reject Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s invitation to fulfill in Istanbul for bilateral ceasefire negotiations, a US-based assume tank mentioned.

Mr Zelensky’s invitation is “pure spectacle” and “comedy”, based on Russian Federation Council speaker Konstantin Kosachev, additional claiming that high-level conferences will not be organised in “such a troublesome scenario”, The Institute for the Research of Conflict mentioned.

Moreover, doubts have been expressed over whether or not Mr Putin will journey to Istanbul to fulfill with Mr Zelensky by Russian State Duma Committee on Worldwide Affairs deputy chairperson Alexei Chepa.

“Kremlin-level officers haven’t formally responded to Zelensky’s invitation as of this report, though statements from lower-level Russian officers point out that Putin will seemingly not journey to Istanbul and meet with Zelensky,” the ISW mentioned.

The Ukrainian navy’s common workers mentioned that as of 10pm (1900 GMT) yesterday, there have been 133 clashes with Russian forces alongside the frontline since midnight, when the ceasefire was to have come into impact.

Ukraine’s high commander, Oleksander Syrskyi, was quoted by Volodymyr Zelensky as saying the heaviest preventing nonetheless gripped the Donetsk area, the main target of the japanese entrance, and Russia’s western Kursk area, 9 months after Kyiv’s forces staged a cross-border incursion.

The preventing was on the similar depth it could be if there have been no ceasefire, mentioned Viktor Trehubov, a spokesperson for the navy on Ukraine’s japanese entrance.

Whereas the Kremlin has successfully rejected an unconditional 30-day ceasefire proposed by the European nations, it has reiterated it could participate in doable peace talks later this week with out preconditions.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky threw down the gauntlet to his Russian counterpart and mentioned he’s prepared to fulfill Vladimir Putin in Turkey “personally” to settle the battle.

Up to now 24 hours, there was no direct response from the Kremlin to the invitation made by Mr Zelensky for a face-to-face assembly.

However Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov refused to say who would possibly journey to Istanbul from the Russian facet.

“Total, we’re decided to significantly search for methods to attain a long-term peaceable settlement. That’s all,” Mr Peskov mentioned.

If Mr Zelensky and Mr Putin, who make no secret of their contempt for one another, had been to fulfill on Thursday it could be their first face-to-face assembly since December 2019.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has backed Donald Trump’s presence at peace talks in Istanbul this week, saying Ukraine has “at all times supported diplomacy” and that he’s “prepared to return to Türkiye”.

“President Erdogan has expressed full readiness to host the assembly. It will be significant that President Trump absolutely helps the assembly, and we want him to seek out a possibility to return to Türkiye,” Mr Zelensky mentioned in his nightly handle.

He additionally referred to as out silence from the Kremlin on direct presents from Kyiv for peace talks.

“Moscow has remained silent all day concerning the proposal for a direct assembly. A really unusual silence. A method or one other, Russia must finish this battle – and the earlier, the higher. There isn’t a sense in persevering with the killing,” he mentioned.

President Volodymyr Zelensky will solely meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for talks in Turkey on Thursday and never every other member of a Russian delegation, a Ukrainian presidential adviser mentioned this morning.

Mr Zelensky has mentioned he is able to meet in Istanbul for a summit to finish the battle, accepting Mr Putin’s supply of direct talks.

The most recent assertion from Kyiv doubles down on Mr Zelensky’s supply to fulfill Mr Putin personally to gauge if Russia is certainly critical about ending the battle in Ukraine.

Final night time, US president Donald Trump supplied to hitch the proposed Ukraine-Russia peace talks.

Whereas Russia has not clarified if it plans to attend the talks and at what stage, officers from the Kremlin have signalled Mr Putin is not going to be a part of the talks.

Mr Zelensky’s invitation is “pure spectacle” and “comedy”, based on Russian Federation Council speaker Konstantin Kosachev, additional claiming that high-level conferences will not be organised in “such a troublesome scenario”, The Institute for the Research of Conflict mentioned.

The European Union doesn’t intend to revive its imports of Russian power after a possible peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, the bloc’s Power Commissioner mentioned this morning.

“The European Union could be very clear, we don’t want power from Russia sooner or later. We do not want it now, and we is not going to want it after a peace,” Dan Jorgensen informed reporters at a gathering of EU ministers in Warsaw.

The EU intends to halt imports of Russian pure gasoline by the tip of 2027 to deprive Russia of income that helps gas his battle on Ukraine, the bloc’s government department mentioned final week.

“Putin has proven that he doesn’t thoughts weaponising gasoline,” Mr Jorgensen has mentioned as he outlined the plan final week.

“We don’t need to replenish his battle chest and help his battle economic system as a result of who is aware of which international locations will probably be subsequent.”

The European bloc says it has lower gasoline imports from 45 per cent to 19 per cent, and oil from 27 per cent to three per cent, of its prewar ranges. However that also makes it Russia’s greatest gasoline shopper, with pipelines in operation throughout the Black Sea, Belarus, and Turkey, based on the Power and Clear Air assume tank.

Russia says its overseas minister Sergei Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan spoke yesterday to debate Vladimir Putin’s proposal to carry direct Russian-Ukrainian talks this week in Turkey.

“The heads of the 2 ministries mentioned points linked with the initiative by Russian Federation President VV Putin about starting direct talks on a Ukrainian settlement on 15 Could in Istanbul,” the ministry mentioned in an announcement.

A Turkish diplomatic supply earlier mentioned the 2 ministers had spoken, however gave no additional particulars.

Mr Putin issued the proposal on the weekend after European leaders met in Kyiv and urged Russia to conform to a 30-day ceasefire in its battle in Ukraine by Monday or face new sanctions.

Turkish overseas minister Hakan Fidan mentioned that he anticipated the 2 sides to achieve a compromise within the coming days that may break the impasse over whether or not talks may start with out a truce in place.