Russia bombs Kyiv despite talk of renewing negotiations
Olena Harmash |
Russia has pounded Kyiv with ballistic missiles and Ukraine has sent hundreds of drones towards Moscow as the warring sides keep up a barrage of attacks despite the latest US push to end the conflict.
Ukraine said Russia fired at least 21 ballistic missiles in three waves. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said three carried cluster munitions – “bomblets” that disperse over a wide area and are banned by many countries because of the danger to civilians. Russia’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Russia said Ukraine launched 630 drones towards Moscow during the night.
The two sides held an exchange of war dead, with Moscow handing over 252 bodies and Ukraine handing over 25, according to the Belta state news agency in neighbouring Belarus. Such exchanges have accompanied moves towards talks in the past.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, interviewed on Russian television a day after meeting US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, confirmed that Russia was ready to resume US-mediated talks with Ukraine next month.
Putin said the aim of the talks was to ensure the security of Ukraine and Russia after the conflict was resolved. Witkoff, he said, had stressed that discussions had to extend to “the architecture of European security”.
“And I agree with that too. Well, let’s see how things develop in the coming days.”
Zelenskiy said he hoped negotiations, which would be the first since February, would take place early in November.
Trump, in comments on Starlink, declined to say whether he had spoken to Musk about restoring the service for Ukraine.
Ukraine uses Starlink for battlefield communications and drone operations. Restricting the service hampered the country’s attack and air defence drone missions against Russia.
Speaking earlier alongside Finland’s prime minister, Zelenskiy said speed on Starlink systems had not been restored for Ukraine.
“We are tackling that,” Zelenskiy said, adding he hoped to discuss the issue with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
In more than a week of differences between Washington and Kyiv, Trump has repeatedly rebuked Ukraine for attacking Russian oil refineries while saying little about far deadlier Russian attacks on Ukraine. He called for Zelenskiy to be replaced and said Russia’s actions in Ukraine have been “fine”.
Zelenskiy, who long avoided any criticism of the Trump administration, has increasingly pushed back against what he describes as a shift towards sympathy with Moscow.
On Thursday, Zelenskiy snapped back at Witkoff for saluting Putin as a “humanitarian” during his visit to Russia, when the US envoy thanked Putin for releasing a 74-year-old American captured by Russian forces in Ukraine.
“Three waves of ballistic missiles have been launched at Kyiv by Russian ‘humanitarians’ since yesterday evening,” Zelenskiy posted on X. “They used 21 missiles. Unfortunately, numerous sites across the city have been hit and damaged.”
After meeting Zelenskiy and European and NATO officials in Oslo this week, Witkoff spoke of “some degree of momentum”, but the Kremlin expressed doubts.
Moscow has repeatedly said it would not end fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, limits the size of its forces and is permanently barred from forming alliances.
Ukraine dismisses Russia’s conditions as a demand for capitulation that would leave it defenceless.
with DPA
Reuters