ByJerry Fisayo-Bambi&AP
Published on •Updated
ADVERTISEMENTOn Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow was ready for a new series of direct peace talks with Ukraine, even though the two countries at war were exchanging long -range drone attacks.
Addressing Minsk journalists during a visit to Bélarus, Putin said that Russian and Ukrainian officials discussed the calendar of a new potential meeting.
The Russian chief said that the terms of a potential ceasefire, which the Kremlin has so far rejected effectively, should be on the agenda.
The war has not shown any signs of slowdown, as international peace efforts led by the United States has so far produced any breakthrough. Two recent series of talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul have been brief and have produced no progress in the regulations.
Ukraine wants the next step in peace to be a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin, said Ukrainian Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov.
However, the suggestion seems likely to be a non-starter, given the recent comments from Putin. The Russian chief said that a meeting at the top should only take place after agreed that the main provisions of a peace agreement have been agreed, which could take months or years.
Putin also repeated her assertion that Zelenskyy lost his legitimacy after the expiration of her presidential mandate last year – an allegation rejected by kyiv and his allies.
Russia and Ukraine exchange long -range drone attacks
Meanwhile, Russian forces launched 363 Shahed and Lure drones as well as eight missiles in Ukraine overnight, Ukrainian Air Force said on Friday, saying the air defenses had stopped all drones except four and killed six cruise missiles.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that 39 Ukrainian drones had been killed in several regions overnight, including 19 in the Rostov region and 13 in the Volgograd region. The two regions are found in the east of Ukraine.
Long -range drone strikes were a characteristic of war, now in its fourth year. The race by both sides to develop increasingly sophisticated and fatal drones transformed war into a testing field for new weapons
Ukrainian drones have managed breathtaking exploits. In early June, nearly a third of the Moscow strategic bombers fleet was destroyed or damaged in a Ukrainian secret operation using low -priced drones sneaking in Russian territory.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, around 359 incoming drones were intercepted or blocked electronically.
Ukraine stops the Russian advance in Sumy
On Thursday, the best Ukrainian military commander, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said that Ukrainian forces had interrupted the recent advance of Russia in the northeast region of Sumy and stabilized the front line near the Russian border.
General Syrskyi said that successful defense in the Sumy region has prevented Russia from redeploying around 50,000 soldiers, including Airborne and Marine Elite brigades, to other parts of the front line.
Ukraine uses new countermeasures against the climbing of Russia of combined missile and drone attacks, according to officials. Instead of counting on mobile ground teams to shoot Shahed, Ukraine deploys interceptor drones it has developed.
Moscow has not yet commented on his complaint. Before that, Russian forces had made slow and expensive progress along certain parts of the front line of approximately 1,000 kilometers, bombing the Sumy region with several attacks that have killed civilians and destroys buildings.
The Ukrainian authorities say that their forces in inferiority have relied heavily on drones to retain Russian troops, as well as international efforts led by the United States to negotiate a cease-fire.
These several months’ talks failed, the only tangible result being the agreement to carry out a series of exchanges of prisoners of war.