U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators urged Moscow to demonstrate a “serious commitment to long-term peace” after negotiations in Moscow failed this week. Russia bombed several cities in Ukraine while the United States claimed to see progress in negotiations with Kyiv.
It was another night of drones and missiles in the war in Ukraine. Russia launched one of the biggest air attacks in recent monthswith hundreds of drones and more than fifty missiles against cities across the country. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it launched a “massive strike” in response to what it said were Ukrainian attacks on civilian targets. Ukraine’s power sector cut production after Russian attacks and Poland withdrew its planes overnight after detecting attacks near its borders.
In Florida, a statement issued by the United States special envoy, Steve Wittkoffsaid that his two days of conversations with Roustem Umerovsecretary of the National Security Council of Ukraine, were “constructive”. Witkoff and Oumerov “agreed on the framework of security arrangements” that would enable such an agreement and “discussed the deterrence capabilities necessary to maintain lasting peace,” according to his statement without giving details.
The prospect of ending the war depends on Russia’s willingness to take “steps to defuse the war and end the massacres,” the statement added. The negotiations, in which the son-in-law of American President Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, is also participating, will continue this Saturday for a third day.
Attacks on energy
Ukrainian air defenses claimed to have shot down most of the drones and missiles, but there were at least three casualties in the kyiv region and major damage In energy infrastructure And rail. In an interview with India today On Friday, Putin demanded that Ukrainian troops completely withdraw from the region this week, saying that otherwise Russia would “liberate these territories (of Donbass) by force.”
Meanwhile, the UN nuclear watchdog said the UN nuclear power plant Zaporizhzhia temporarily lost all external power Overnight, this is the eleventh time this has happened since Russia’s full-scale invasion. Ukraine operates three nuclear power plants that produce more than half of the country’s electricity and the IAEA said the plants had reduced output due to “widespread military activities overnight.”
kyiv is also responding with drones, which have again attacked refineries and oil targets on Russian territory, as part of its campaign to reduce the Kremlin’s energy revenues. The Ukrainian military said Saturday that Ukrainian forces attacked Russia’s Ryazan oil refinery and a munitions factory.
The noise of this air war is already being felt on NATO territory: Poland confirmed that he had done take off fighters and put its anti-aircraft defenses on maximum alertas a preventive measure against these bombings on its Ukrainian neighbor. Sirens sounded on Saturday morning in Lubartow, in the Lublin region of eastern Poland, private radio station RMF FM reported.
See you in Moscow
After months of meetings between the sides, significant points of contention remain, including security guarantees for Ukraine after the war and territorial concessions.
The meeting in Florida is return match of the American shipment to Russia this week. Witkoff spent nearly five hours with Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, after which the Kremlin said “no compromise had been reached” on the draft U.S. peace plan.
The Kremlin says Putin is ready to continue meeting with the Americans “as many times as necessary”, but Ukraine and its allies in Europe have sowed doubt about the Russian leader’s determination to end the war.