Ukraine has accused Russia of failing to change its position on the war by firing a wave of ballistic missiles just after United States envoy Steve Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the resumption of peace talks.
In a televised interview aired last night, Putin said that any trilateral talks would focus on the security arrangements of a final peace deal and not a “short” truce.
Air raid sirens sounded throughout the night and into this morning in Kyiv, where two people were killed and more than 30 other people wounded, city authorities said.
Two women aged 50 and 60 were killed, and dozens more were wounded in an attack on a crowded market in the eastern city of Lozova. Two were wounded in the Moscow region after Ukraine launched a large-scale drone attack.
The strikes came after the Kremlin said it was willing to restart trilateral talks with Ukraine and the US next month, but dismissed ideas brought by Witkoff that were developed with European countries and Ukraine.
In all, a dozen Ukrainian regions were hit overnight, including homes, energy sites, shops, cafes and a monastery in Kyiv, where strikes have intensified before winter sets in.
All families and children were told to evacuate the frontline towns of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in the east after a spate of attacks killed dozens of civilians.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the onslaught began “almost immediately” after Witkoff and Putin held hours-long talks in St Petersburg. He scoffed at Witkoff’s description of Putin as a “humanitarian”.
“This means there has been no real change in its attitude towards everything that is happening,” Zelenskyy said.
Russia emboldened
Ukraine has repeatedly called on its allies, including the US, to supply it with advanced US-made Patriot interceptors to shoot down missiles and fast-moving attack drones.
Zelenskyy warned of more strikes to come and suggested that Moscow, emboldened by an easing of sanctions pressure, was “clearly taking advantage of the slowdown in air-defence supplies from our partners”, in a clear nod to Washington.
In Brussels, Nato said it was allowing Ukraine to buy weapons through the alliance’s central procurement agency on a “case-by-case basis”.
As Witkoff returned from Russia, Trump said negotiations were “maybe now the closest we’ve been” to ending the war.
But in Kyiv and European capitals, hopes for a breakthrough were slim, with many worried that the White House was siding with Moscow.
Zelenskyy accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians in Kyiv, including with cluster munitions, which disperse in the air, showering dozens of smaller explosive devices or bomblets indiscriminately over a large area.
In August, Human Rights Watch reported an apparent increase in the use of the weapons, which are fired in rockets and missiles or dropped from aircraft. Doing so could be a war crime, it added.
Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022 in what it hoped would be a swift attack to topple Zelenskyy and seize land.
Instead, it has become bogged down in Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II. Hundreds of thousands have been killed, millions forced from their homes, and much of eastern and southern Ukraine destroyed.
Stalled talks
In recent days, Trump has blocked new sanctions on Russia, struck a deal to buy Russian diesel, and called for the Ukrainian leader to be replaced.
Zelensky has backed resuming trilateral talks, several rounds of which over the past 18 months have failed to move the sides closer to a deal.
Russia is demanding that Ukraine pull out of territory in the eastern Donetsk region that it still controls, and wants sweeping restrictions on the size of its army and Western alliances.
Ukraine rejects the demands as tantamount to a capitulation that would leave it exposed to a fresh attack.
Moscow said that a summit between Trump, Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping was being prepared in China for next month, with Europeans and Ukraine worrying that a deal could be struck over their heads.
Witkoff called his talks with Putin “constructive” but “there is still important work left to do”. He said technical-level talks would continue between all three sides.
Putin has consistently rejected face-to-face talks with Zelenskyy and insisted that Moscow intends to seize the rest of eastern Ukraine, either through a deal or on the battlefield.
- AFP