Kyiv: Russia and Ukraine traded heavy aerial blows overnight, with both sides Saturday reporting more than 100 enemy drones over their respective territories.
The attacks came less than 24 hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin met with US envoy Steve Witkoff to discuss details of the American proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in the war with Ukraine.
Putin told a press conference Thursday that he supported a truce in principle but set out a host of details that need to be clarified before it is agreed. Kyiv has already endorsed the truce proposal, although Ukrainian officials have publicly raised doubts as to whether Moscow will commit to such a deal.
Speaking to reporters in Kyiv Saturday, after virtual talks between Western allies hosted by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Zelenskyy voiced Ukraine’s support for the 30-day full ceasefire proposal to discuss a longer-term peace plan, but said Russia would attempt to derail talks with conditions and “buts”.
Starmer has told allies to “keep the pressure” on Putin to back a ceasefire in Ukraine, hailing Ukraine as the “party of peace”. Starmer said Putin will “sooner or later” have to “come to the table.
In a statement earlier Saturday, Zelenskyy had accused Moscow of building up forces along the border.
“The build-up of Russian forces indicates that Moscow intends to keep ignoring diplomacy. It is clear that Russia is prolonging the war,” he said.
However, Zelenskyy stressed that if Russia did not agree with the US proposal there would be “specific, harsh and straightforward” response from the administration of US President Donald Trump.
He also said that Kyiv’s troops were maintaining their presence in Russia’s Kursk region after Trump said Friday that “thousands” of Ukrainian troops had been surrounded by the Russian military.
“The operation of our forces in the designated areas of the Kursk region continues,” Zelenskyy said. “Our troops continue to hold back Russian and North Korean groupings in the Kursk region. There is no encirclement of our troops.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke Saturday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. In the call, they discussed the next steps to follow up on recent meetings in Saudi Arabia and agreed to continue working towards restoring communication between the United States and Russia, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.
Ukraine’s air force said Saturday that Russia had launched a barrage of 178 drones and two ballistic missiles over the country overnight. The attack was a mixture of Shahed-type drones and imitation drones designed to confuse air defences. Some 130 drones were shot down, while 38 more failed to reach their targets.
Russia attacked energy facilities, causing significant damage, striking energy infrastructure in the Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa regions, Ukraine’s private energy company DTEK said in a statement Saturday. Some residents were left without electricity.
“The damage is significant. Energy workers are already working on the ground. We are doing everything possible to restore power to homes as soon as possible,” the energy firm said.
Falling drone debris in Russia’s Volgograd region sparked a fire in the Krasnoarmeysky district of the city, close to a Lukoil oil refinery, according to Gov. Andrei Bocharov, who provided no further details. Nearby airports temporarily halted flights, local media outlets reported. No casualties were reported.
The Volgograd refinery has been targeted by Kyiv’s forces on several occasions since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago, most recently in a drone attack February 15.
AP
