Kyiv, Ukraine — Ukraine is pushing for face-to-face talks between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kiev’s top diplomat said, with a potential summit presented as a way to bring new momentum to US-led efforts. Russia’s invasion for more than four years His neighbor’s.
Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone strike inside Russia hit a residential building, killing a woman and a child, Russian officials said on Wednesday.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiha said Kiev has asked Turkey to help facilitate top-level talks and has reached out to other capitals as potential hosts, adding that Ukraine would consider any venue outside Russia and Belarus.
“We… are advocating for a (summit) meeting now to bring new momentum to diplomacy,” Sibiha told reporters on Tuesday. His comments were barred until Wednesday.
US mediated talks There has been little or no progress in talks between delegations from Moscow and Kiev over the past year important issuesAs if Moscow is trying to control, but not completely control, the future of four Ukrainian regions. Washington’s attention has now been drawn to Iran warThe conversation is on ice.
Zelensky has accepted the unconditional ceasefire demanded by US President Donald Trump but refused by Putin. Analysts say Putin believes time is on his side, Western military and financial aid will end and Ukrainian resistance will eventually collapse.
Meanwhile, fierce fighting continues along a nearly 1,250-kilometre (800-mile) front line in Ukraine’s eastern and southern regions. Western officials and analysts claim that Russia is suffering thousands of battlefield casualties every month, which is being compared to the genocide of the First World War.
Independent verification of the number of casualties on the battlefield and which side has the upper hand is not possible.
Ukraine has developed a domestic arms industry that is rapidly producing Long range drones and missiles Capable of attacking deep into Russia. It has targeted Russian oil production and manufacturing plants that supply the Russian military.
In Syzran, a city in Russia’s Samara region, about 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of the border with Ukraine, a drone strike caused part of a residential building to collapse, local officials said.
Local officials said the bodies of a woman and a child were pulled from the debris and 12 others were injured.
Pictures from the scene showed part of the four-story building reduced to a huge pile of debris, with emergency workers standing on top.
Russian media reports said the Rosneft oil refinery – which is a frequent target of Ukrainian drone attacks – is located on the same street as the damaged building.
Sergei Shoigu, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, said last month that Ukraine’s air strikes on Russia nearly quadrupled last year, from 6,200 in 2024 to more than 23,000 in 2025.
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