Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky offers Putin fresh peace talks after weeks of Moscow’s missile strikes – UK Times

Volodymyr Zelensky has sent Moscow an offer to hold another round of peace talks next week.

The Ukrainian president has said that he wanted to speed up negotiations for a ceasefire.

Ukraine and Russia have held two rounds of talks in Istanbul over the past five months. They have agreed to swap prisoners but made no breakthroughs in ending almost three and a half years of conflict that started with Russia’s 2022 invasion.

“Everything should be done to achieve a ceasefire,” Zelenskiy said in his evening address to the nation. “The Russian side should stop hiding from decisions,” he added.

The president said Rustem Umerov, who headed the Ukrainian delegation at both talks in Istanbul, had sent the Russian side the offer to hold the meeting next week, but gave no more details.

At least two people were killed in Russian attack on Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region.

Russia launched its biggest ever attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad yesterday, regional governor Sergiy Lysak said.

The airstrike destroyed “an outpatient clinic, a school and a cultural institution” in the Vasylkivska township, he added.

Russian air defence systems shot down three drones en route to Moscow last evening, city mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram.

Two Moscow airports – Vnukovo and Domodedovo – suspended arrivals and departures for safety reasons but later resumed operations, Russian aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia said.

The Russian defence ministry said its air defence systems intercepted and destroyed 27 Ukrainian drones in total from 3 pm to 7pm local time, including four over Moscow region, 15 over Bryansk region, six over Kaluga region and two over Tula.

Ukraine’s foreign minister has accused Russia of deporting Ukrainian citizens into Georgia and leaving them stranded without proper identification.

Andrii Sybiha said Moscow has escalated the practice of expelling Ukrainians — many of whom are former prisoners — across its southern border with Georgia, instead of returning them directly to Ukraine.

“Dozens of people, many of whom lack proper documentation, have been stuck in the transit zone,” he wrote on X.

Russia launched a massive attack on Ukraine with hundreds of drones, killing at least one person, part of a stepped-up bombing campaign that has dashed hopes for a breakthrough in efforts to end the more than three-year-old war.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky posted on X that Russia fired over 300 drones, along with more than 30 cruise missiles.

One person died in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, which was hit with more than 20 drones and a missile, mayor Hennadii Trukhanov wrote on Telegram, while five people were rescued when a fire broke out in a residential high-rise building.

According to Mr Zelensky, six other people were wounded in the attack on Odesa, including a child, and critical infrastructure was damaged in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region.

The UK has sanctioned a string of Russian spies and hackers, accusing them of carrying out a campaign to “destabilise Europe”.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: “GRU spies are running a campaign to destabilise Europe, undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty and threaten the safety of British citizens.

“The Kremlin should be in no doubt: we see what they are trying to do in the shadows and we won’t tolerate it. That’s why we’re taking decisive action with sanctions against Russian spies.”